


I Don't Trust U Anymore

by AnarchyPamda



Category: She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Criminals, Alternate Universe - Flower Shop & Tattoo Parlor, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Cheating, Cutting, Emotional/Psychological Abuse, Established Relationship, F/F, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, Implied/Referenced Sex, Implied/Referenced Suicide attempt, No Smut, Panic Attacks, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Trans Female Character, Transphobia, trans Catra
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-03-09
Updated: 2019-11-11
Packaged: 2019-11-14 04:40:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 25,190
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18045668
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AnarchyPamda/pseuds/AnarchyPamda
Summary: Catra, Entrapta, and Scorpia have happily run a body modification shop for years. However one-day Catra's ex-girlfriend walks in after eight years of separation and hires her to do a full sleeve. In addition to the problems of working with the ex you never properly got over, comes the effects of having to deal with the tattoo being for Adora's upcoming wedding. And to add onto these conflicts is the oh-so-common problem of Adora not recognizing Catra given neither knew Catra was a girl last time they were together.Aka; I met a bunch of people that knew me before transition and they don't recognize me and it's super weird and I hope I never see any of them again out of primordial fear but I did get a multichapter fic out of it.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> It's been more than three years since I've written anything so this is probably going to be terrible but maybe will have some fun along the way. Also for people that read the Aka, that's isn't gonna be a big deal for most of the story it was mostly just the triggering event. Presumably, this will update semi-regularly for a while so enjoy. 
> 
> This is marked modern but given all of the different technology that's gonna show up, you might be able to guess that +30 or 40 years is probably more accurate at the time of posting. Partially my excuse for having animal parts still in the story and partially because I have an in-depth light future setting from my TTRPG days that I have a great fondness for.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter re-written on April 9th, 2019. I don't think anything introduced here is new and will affect the story so re-reading for those that have already completed it is optional. However, there is a lot of small changes that mean it's probably a good idea.
> 
> For those who didn't read all of the tags, this story is super about abuse and PTSD so if your sensitive to that your enjoyment will probably be completely destroyed by that.

 “Goddammit, Adora.”

 

Catra Hurst generally considered herself a calm person. There were things in life that scared her, yes, but that was a small list of things that turn up often enough and dangerous enough to warrant a place on the list on scary things. However, upon that list was at least one fear that whilst being worthy of a violent fear reaction had seemed like an impossible event up until about 30 seconds before when a blond woman had strolled into Catra’s shop. A mix of fear and guilt invaded her mind and a rush of memories and complications with it. Enough immediate fear to cause Catra to sprinted off to the shops one bathroom to have a panic attack.

 

The past thirty seconds of Catra's life were some of the worst in her thirty years of life. Her hair had been driven to a mess by her hands running over her scalp and trying in a way to cuddle herself, the cat ears on her head sticking up through that layer and making her look even worse. Her eyeliner was running quickly under either a layer of sweat from fear or the tears in her eyes from guilt, exactly which being an incredibly hard task to tell the difference between. A brief flash of her proper mental processes reminded her that this was not the first time she had acted like this, and of the ways to recover to her normal state for a time.

 

Three years’ worth of living with Scorpia had come with her interest in yoga and meditation, to which Catra had originally ignored but eventually been roped into after Entrapta moved in and join the brutish girl. Meditation, the idea of pushing away the conscious for an altered state of reality, a separation of one’s self and their problems if used in that manner. Exactly how long it took for Catra to recover from the panic wasn’t known to the girl, something like fifteen minutes if she was forced to guess, but with that time she worked the necessary techniques to calm herself down. Now Catra was forced to deal with the physical problem, for which she had hoped the time spent panicking would have gotten rid of.

 

Apparently false hope, both in the idea that Adora would have disappeared within the time she spends terrified in the bathroom and that looking at her wouldn’t bring back a deeply held wave of guilt. Catra focused on the task at hand, her current goal of get Adora to leave the shop. Rush her out as fast as possible on the excuse that works the best and makes sure she never comes back, without hurting the flawless reputation the shop had built. With that complicated mess of factors came a basic first and most important command of ‘don’t give her even the slightest hint of who you were to her in the past.’ Adora had drifted from the entrance of the shop over to where Catra’s desk separated the main room and the employees only area and was standing very awkwardly and nervously by it. Catra approached and sat down followed by a quick hand gesture vaguely suggesting Adora should sit as well.

 

“Hey, um, are you okay?”

 

“Yeah, kinda, enough for a quick conversation with a customer.” That was strike one, the perfect pitch to get her to leave and Catra hadn’t taken it.

 

“Alright, quick. Hi, I’m Adora and I’m looking to get a tattoo for my upcoming wedding.”

 

“You and a hundred others, what's the name? I can have Scorpia do it in twenty minutes.”

 

“Not important, I wanna get something a lot more complicated than that. A, um…” Two snaps from the blond and then she put her on Catra’s arm and moved it across her left sleeve, an irezumi cat and gradient background she had done all by herself. Catra felt both blush and a smile spread over her face. Apparently, some part of her still missed her lifelong best friend. And apparently, some part of her was attracted to her as an ex-girlfriend.

 

“A sleeve, now that is unique. What are you contacting me for?” Strike two went off then, however, Catra didn’t bother noticing this time. Apparently, the part of her brain that generated attraction was stronger than the part in charge of feeling guilt.  

 

“Design, layout, actually doing it. The whole thing.” Catra thought on all the sleeves she had done in the three years she had the studio, 6 weeks to get the whole thing applied with a two or three weeks design period. Two months with Adora, a promising source of fuel for the torch she was discovering in her head.

 

“Alright, here take my card and then I will check my calendar and if I can schedule you in, I’ll let you know about the process and fee’s and all of that stuff.” Catra fished one of her worn out and rarely used business cards from within one of the desk drawers and handed it over.

 

“Alright, thank you Miss Catra…” Adora drifted off as she spoke and suddenly Catra was convinced that both of them were now remembering the relationship they once had and all of the negative aspects that it had been built upon. Catra's mind was racing again, convinced she had made it all the way to the end of the conversation and right at the end slipped up with too much information. Adora had a chance to recognize her last name and draw the connections, but that would be hard with the little knowledge she had. Two months of working together on the other hand, however, and the chances of a drawn conclusion where going to go up. A slight stutter in her breath as she thought over risk and rewards, Adora seemed lost in the card. 

 

Adora left the shop without ever speaking again, leaving Catra with a simple hand wave, and meanwhile, Catra was left alone in her shop. Alone, except for the combined forces of her guilt and worry about her old relationship mixed with the passion and importance it had held for most of her life. A large grin spread across her face, a long series of positive memories from her childhood floating back into conciseness and covering the bad ones that defined the years they dated.

 

* * *

 

Adora crossed the short distance in the shopping pavilion that separated the tattoo shop and a flower shop quickly, followed by a brief walk through the shop checking and watering different plants and flowers on display. Satisfied that they all looked good enough to sell themselves and weren’t going to need anything until the shop closed, Adora headed into the break room looking for her boss. The back room was empty, which meant that she was upstairs in her personal office and given Adora didn’t have the key to that door she sat down in the room drifting off slightly with how little sleep she had been getting recently.

 

Adora’s mind flew through the events that had led her to this job in a very quick fashion. Perfuma and Adora had only met only a year ago at one of the many galas she had to attend as part of dating Glimmer, who had to attend them because of her rich and important mother. Perfuma and Glimmer's moms were both putting backing into some eco-friendly project Adora couldn’t even remember the name of but required their attendance. Given that Perfuma had spent the time since Adora slipped into the rich girls club off in some foreign country working on a series of eco-projects, they had never interacted since Adora had made friends with Glimmer and her group despite her position as one of the first three. However, what could have been a positive first interaction was tainted by the letters Glimmer had sent her over the years which was misrepresentative of the girl Perfuma got to meet. 

 

Their initial interactions had been hard, emotionally painful even a few times, but exposure worked it's magic and they started being able to talk to each other. Around four months ago had come another gala, this one regarding women's shelters, and some hard truth and a few drinks watered a budding friendship, a quick process from conflict to closer friends than most of the other young adults in their friend group. Two months ago, Perfuma stated she wanted to actually work for her own money and Adora had volunteered to help given she had been riding off of Glimmer or Bow’s money for years and needed something to do with her day. A month worth of research later and they had the shop she was now in and had spent the last month operating, with a surprisingly high amount of profit.

 

Adora opened her eyes as the other women stepped out of the locked upper room, a look on her face as if she was stealing from a cookie jar and not doing something in her job description. Perfuma wiped the look off of her face and sat down next to Adora.

 

“Hi, you were supposed to be out longer.”

 

“The artist was having some mental thing, so it went pretty quickly. You confident this is the only tattoo artist you trust?”

 

“I mean there’s Sea Hawk, but I don’t trust him, and it’s not like your mental things have stopped us from being friends.” Adora had a small flashback to the interaction that had actually made them friends and leads to the excessive drinking, she felt her breath falter and Perfuma noticed immediately.

 

What Adora assumed was about to be an apology was cut off by herself speaking. “Right. Look this is going to sound crazy and paranoid but…” She pulled out the business card and handed it to the plant whisperer, “… she had the same last name as him and I don’t-”. Adora stopped talking as the words coming out of her own mouth started to make no sense to herself, the insane thoughts of a person much too paranoid to consider logic as a factor running wild.

 

Perfuma put both of her hands on Adora’s shoulders and forced their eyes together. “Adora I don’t think you’re crazy, but you need to think with facts. Hurst isn’t exactly a common last name but like two thousand people have it in the country. I know it’s strange but it’s not impossible to happen, plus it’s not like he became a girl, right? It’s a different person and everything’s going to be fine. I’ll ask about some other artist’s from Entrapta or the customers if that helps.”

 

Adora shook her head, even if there was still a little shaking in her body language. “God, I hate how easy it is to break down. Don’t ask for anyone else, I need to actually face my problems and talking to her is a very roundabout way of doing that.”

 

“Or you could go to a therapist, but I respect your choices, so I won’t complain about that. Aren’t you cutting it kind of close to the wedding, isn't it like four months away?”

 

Adora and Perfuma settled into a nice retort as the conversation went on regarding what to do with the tattoo, and avoided anything that would cause a problem for Adora with relative ease. Lots of little positive moments from Glimmer and Adora’s relationship brought up as things to include, serving to bury the negative memories that had only been poked by the previous subject.

 

* * *

 

A few hours later and across the pavilion the living area of the parlour was bustling. Scorpia and Entrapta moving around the furniture that dominated the room to give the trio room to do this week’s yoga session in, whilst Catra worked the stove preparing tonight’s dinner. In the years they had operated the shop the girls had discovered that Wednesday was the least active in the week, leading to an early closing and the ability to actually do things before Scorpia fell asleep. Catra indulges her desire to eat real food, Scorpia gets to run her yoga routine and Entrapta shows off the different project’s she’d worked on for the last seven days, a happy time in the small apartments that had been running on schedule for years.

 

Catra was only half paying attention to the water boiling beside her, more than content to read out today’s headlines from her phone until the sound of water hitting on fire told her it was ready. Status updates on fifteen major streets getting renovations to be self-driving only, a re-run of information regarding a school shooting two weeks prior, op-eds on different policies being instituted by the mayor, and a list of other events she found herself reading most days.

 

Two things were able to spark her interest however; the first being a report regarding an attempted kidnapping of previously mentioned mayor that placed the blame at the feat of the gang Catra was technically a member of, which was deeply alarming given she had never seen The Horde actually fail a mission in the almost decade she had worked for them. The second was something that pulled her away from the thoughts on her gang and to the events that had thrown her through an emotional roller-coaster earlier today.

 

The call window of an unknown number popped up on screen, after questioning who would be calling her this late Catra answered the phone expecting to hear a familiar voice. “Hi, Catra speaking.”

 

“Hay Catra, it’s Adora if you forgot my voice. I just wanted to pass along my number so you can actually tell me if your available or not. Are you?”

 

“Um, yeah I am. Only have like three long term clients right now so you’re not a big addition. It’s gonna take like most of the month to design everything and do the layout so start compiling a list of things you want.”

 

“Oh cool, if you’d excuse me, I need to call my fiancée about something.”

 

Scorpia and Entrapta jumped as a black box flew through the air and smashed through the barely covered engineered lumber and into the next room. A glace in the opposite to Catra showed a look of pure anger on her face, which neither girl could understand given the conversation she had been having sounded fairly pleasant.

 

The only explanation they got as Catra stomped off to her room was a crass expression under her breath likely not intended for them to hear.

 

“Goddammit, Adora.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> When I first published this chapter I talked about the release of the West End Recording of Heather: The Musical as it had just come out but now it's been a month so that's not relevant anymore. 
> 
> However, I do brink up Heather's an exceedingly high amount in the Notes so maybe check out either of the two soundtracks currently available as of writing and the movie if you're okay with some really homophobic language.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi why are so many people here? Where did you all come from, why are you interested in this? Regardless the amount of you that showed up and did the kudos and bookmarks thing was so great I am now legally required to entertain you. Good job, this proof of concept is actually going to become something. 
> 
> Again, this is brought to you by the cast recording of Heathers. Enjoy the references to the original series those who get them cause I sure only hit random page on the wiki.
> 
> Chapter Re-Written: April 11th, 2019

Etheria is one of, if not the, most interesting city located within the America’s. It is a hotbed for people developing and implementing new technologies, the city often feels more like an extension of the tests for universal decent Wi-Fi and self-driving cars to the people that look at it from the outside. However, for the people that live within the city reality is well separated from this outside impression, and it’s a very bad place for the thousands of people closer and below the poverty line. Most of these people are forced to congregate in the city’s worst districts, the worst and even most populate is colloquially known as The Fright Zone.

 

The previous heart of the cities classic industry this area is famous for the smoke towers that rise high over the residential and shopping building that separate it from the centre of the city and the dense box building’s where so many of the older generation remember spending most of their day, among a list of other things that repulse most of the high society types. Most important to the history of the area is how it became its modern interpretation, a place that congregates Etheria’s criminal elements in dense enough numbers that the cops have decided that waiting for the gangs to all kill each other is the best way to deal with the problem.

 

Sadly, not much of this history is actually remembered at least with any form of accuracy. On the side of the truth, it’s known the city launched a plan to demolish and revitalize the area after the eco-factories got set up on the other side of town and all the rust tower’s where seen as a blight on the skyline. However not looking forward to their neighbourhood to get gentrified the communities near or even out of district took a stand against the fact they wouldn’t be able to live there in a few years. These protests didn’t stop the city council from starting up their plans, just delayed things like the city centre or the half-finished skyscrapers now so important to the criminal elements of Etheria.

 

Speaking on Etheria’s criminal element’s this is where history starts to get much more confusing. During the delays caused by the protesting a group of people dressed in black and red walked down the street with guns and got into an altercation with the police, this story is believed to have happened but the implications of a gang doing it don’t hold up as well, much less with those colours as The Horde has only existed for most of the last nine years and all this happened twenty-something years ago. Regardless there were more conflicts with officers and armed citizens, then a few attacks on workers in construction sights and finally the city decided to pull out of the effort leaving most of the towers still up with the occasional modern building or empty lot.

 

After the police pulled out the people walking the streets decided to start up their respective gangs and continued to rise and fall all the way up to the modern day. As previously mentioned, The Horde is the most important and constant gang to have ever existed in the history of Etheria and is the first group accused of doing anything illegal in town, even before they existed as mentioned before. If you think the information available on the history of the turn from industrial to crime was sparse the details of The Horde are even worse. Their leader is unknown beyond using the fake name Hordak, their left hand is said to be a witch and half of the people in the district are wearing their colours, however they never insight violence. The Horde is very passionate in solving problems with non-violence, the city centre being retooled by them to operate as a neutral ground where gangs and citizens can interact without getting shot. If you want drugs, weapons or most importantly tattoo’s and flowers this is the only place you can go and get them safely.

 

The Shaping Staff and Singing River Boutique are two building that sits at the edge of the east half of the complex, one of the parking lots fifty feet from their opposed doors. Within the second story of the body work’s shop is a woman curled up in a ball staring out her window into the blinking Open sign of the boutique. Her mind is rushing with thoughts of jealousy staring down where she knows her ex is working as late as she can afford to. However, jealousy was not the only thing that occupied her mind, it was mixed with the guilt of the existing relationship and the guilt created by as part of being jealous of her moving on. She dragged her eyes away from the blinking sign and shoved her head into her pillow attempting to fall asleep and maybe, just maybe, tomorrow she would be able to put all of her feelings behind her.

 

Her mind was not in the mood for that and pushed the thoughts of the past up into her mind. First, it pulled up the memories of early childhood. The day that she met Adora, how nice she had been to the stranger crying over her dead cat in her back yard, how they had worked together to bury the cat in the flower bed that had killed the little kitten. Years’ worth of barely remembered interactions as they grew up together until puberty kicked in and they drifted apart during Middle school. Then during the summer between Middle and High school, they had reconnected as friends and once the school year started up Catra asked her out.

 

After that the memories become even more distorted, to say their relationship was something that made Catra want to throw up wasn’t the half of it. The positive memories that she was pretty sure weren’t connected to any of the things Catra had done, the year in between High School and College being the stand out point where both were happy and the abuse was at its lowest. Catra occasionally thinks about the wedding ring under her bed, think about how many missed opportunities she had to marry the other girl. She was happy she hadn’t and Adora was marrying some other girl. She was jealous, incredibly jealous. But they weren’t good for each other. Catra wasn’t good for Adora. Catra didn’t think she was good for anyone.

 

Her brain made it to the final moment and hung on it just as long as the first memory, despite the eight years of dating and ten years of friendship that separated those memories. Another day drinking in depression in her college dorm, a door that was supposed to be locked wasn’t. Adora came into the room, took one look around at the things scattered around and pulled a ring out of her wallet. She through it to the ground and crushed it with her heel, that was eight years ago. In the moment Catra had cried and gone on a binger, two weeks of her life gone before waking up in a rehab centre in Etheria. Catra abandoned her three years of college and started up a brand-new life in town, with a new name and a new look. Catra sat up in her bed as tears ran down her face and resumed staring out the window and noticed Scorpia and Adora leaving the shop together. She entered the living room, Entrapta was asleep on the floor and grabbed her leather jacket before following the other two undetected. Love makes you do crazy things.

 

-

 

Adora stared down at her phone as the call with Catra suddenly cut off with some kind of violent noise. She hit the name in her contact list for the call to go straight to voice mail. A slight shrug of her shoulders accepting she would figure out what happened there later and then she glanced at the clock. 7:49, almost closing time. All of the flowers where already watered and Perfuma had left early which mean she could just leave eleven minutes early. She glanced back at the time and decided that Glimmer was probably asleep and then over to her bike in the corner and decided to wait until it was actually quitting time, maybe someone would wander in. Adora stood up and went back into the main room, taking the bike with her and placing it behind the counter, and waited at the counter.

 

She was bored quickly and looked down at the order form on the counter and started to scribble notes on the pad. The name of a middle eastern coffee shop she and Gimmer had their first date at, a long list of comprising Gimmer’s personality traits and the thing Adora loved about her, notes about Glimmer’s mom and Bow, the name of a dress that Adora crossed out and just wrote ‘will send picture’ next too that she had worn when Glimmer proposed. She wrote down wedding ring after that and then froze, the pen came to a stop and then a second later desperately tried to scratch that off of the paper and out of her mind. A hole formed in the paper as the pen moved over it again and again. Her mind, however, was stuck in between the ring on her finger and the broken piece of metal in her attic.

 

Adora ripped the ring off her finger and threw it at the door with tears forming in her eyes, and then she heard the sound of the bell on the door go off. As Adora cleared the tears from her eyes they opened incredibly wide at the sight of the girl in front of her. A massive woman a foot and a half taller than her, made of pure muscle with two exceptions. Both of her arms were made of a mix of metal and scorpion scales, still designed to look incredibly buff to support the rest of her frame. Despite all of that within her hands she was nervously holding Adora’s wedding ring in her hand and looked like she was about to cry with Adora.

 

Adora broke down in front of the other girl and she started crying as well, however she did place her arms around Adora to comfort her. A few minutes’ worth of tears later and both women had stopped crying, Adora stopping first and having to return the gesture to the other women.

 

The tall women reorganized herself and looked at the other girl. “Hi, I’m Scorpia. I work over at the parlour across the street doing piercings. I think we met when I sold the place to Perfuma, but we didn’t talk. Anyway, are you okay?”

 

“Um yeah.”

 

“Really, cause I think that most people taking off their wedding rings and crying aren’t okay. But, if you don’t wanna talk about it I know I can’t make you.”

 

“Thanks, but it just has to do with some bad memories from an old relationship. Can you give that back to me?”

 

“Oh yeah.” Scorpia gave back the ring and Adora slipped it into her pocket. “I’ve never had a serious relationship so I don’t think I can help with that. Catra is having something similar, threw her phone instead though. Maybe you should talk to her.”

 

“Um, thanks. I might at some point if I get the chance.”

 

“Alright, is there anything I can do for you right now?”

 

“Um…” Adora looked down at her phone and noticed it was now 8:21. “Yeah actually, I don’t really wanna bike back to my house. Can you give me a lift back to my place?”

 

“Oh yeah sure. I’ll be outside until you close up.”

 

“Alright, give me five to grab my bag and set my alarm.” Scorpia let out a light laugh as she exited the store when Adora mentioned the alarm.  

 

-

 

Adora and Scorpia were sitting in her car and driving across town towards Adora’s house. The car was filled with sounds of the navigation telling her she was going the wrong way as she attempted to shake the tail, she had on her, reassuring Adora didn’t question her actions. Scorpia suddenly hit the brakes and watched the bike speed on past, a familiar set of hair extending incredibly far out of a bike helmet tipping her off to who was following her. She actually smiled at the thought that Catra was worried about her enough to follow even during one of her moods.

 

Scorpia turned her attention back to the road mad and started driving normally, eventually noticing the bike return much less obvious in its approach and let it follow her across town. “So how do you normally get home, Bright is like thirty miles from our workplace?”

 

“Me and Perfuma both live in the same neighbourhood, she drives me to and from most days. I have a bike in the shop in case I need to get myself home and need a workout, haven’t used it since we opened a month ago though.”

 

“Well that is a shame. Are you neglecting your workout’s?”

 

“Yeah, kinda. I didn’t have a job until recently, so I worked out during the day, but now I’m working twelve-hour shifts five days a week.”

 

“Most of the places don’t even open until like eleven, why do you open at eight?”

 

“Morticians come in early prepping for funerals.”

 

“Oh.” Scorpia needed to change the subject. “Do you know if ‘Trapta and Perfuma are dating?”

 

“Um, who is that?”

 

“The girl with the purple hair, smells like motor oil and formaldehyde, is covered in motor oil.”

 

“I don’t think so. Perfuma has been giving her eyes since before we moved in, but I don’t think they're anything more than friends.”

 

The smile on Scorpia’s face got bigger. “Well, that’s great. ‘Trapta has problems talking to people and her only friends for like two years have been me and Catra. Just tell your friend not to get her hopes up, rejection is super a possibility.”

 

“Got it, if were giving away personal information can I ask you a question about Catra.” Adora needed to satisfy the question she had formed earlier in the day. Hurst. She was convinced that it wasn’t just some kind of coincidence.

 

“Maybe. I can’t say a lot about her personal life that wouldn’t be rude to her.”

 

“Right, I get that. Um. Do you know if Catra has a brother?”

 

Another slam of the cars breaks, this time instead of a motorcycle to attract Adora’s attention there was just the suddenly very upset face of Scorpia clutching the wheel in a death grip.

 

She rubbed her eyes with one hand and spoke in the nicest voice she could muster at the time. “Adora. Get out of my car. Now!”

 

Adora opened the door as fast as she could and walked out onto the sidewalk, almost nine at night and now she was stranded. A quick look at her phone, eight miles to go until she was back. She let out a sigh, but before she could start walking, she heard the sound of something pulling up alongside her. She turned her head to see a motorcycle with Catra sitting atop it, helmet in hand.

 

“Hey Adora, what are you doing out here?”

 

“I should ask you the same question, suburban Etheria doesn’t seem like the place you’d ever visit.”

 

“Don’t answer questions with questions and make judgments of what parts of town I think are nice. You want a lift or do you like jogging in your work clothes?”

 

“Yeah sure.” Adora approached and Catra hatched a plan in her mind, just a small one for now. A test of how much Adora was willing to think about the relationship they had once had.

 

“You ever been on a bike before?” Whilst a different bike Catra had been riding motorcycles since she was thirteen and Adora had been on the back hundreds if not thousands of times.

 

“Nope. Seen enough movies that I think I know how to hold onto you though.” Adora got on and Catra drove, half listening to instructions from Adora on where to turn and half thinking how good it felt that Adora had moved on and forgotten her past self. Now she just had to get her best friend back, even if she had to accept that Adora would never love her back.

 

The motorcycle pulled to a stop outside of a large house that made Catra’s eyes widen and Adora got off and entered. Catra hung around for a minute memorizing the home address and then headed back to her place based on memory. Adora walked into the bedroom, exhaustion taking over and fell into bed and sleep without another thought.

 

Glimmer got out of bed and started blowing out the romantic candles peppering the room, stripped out of her sexy lingerie and into normal sleeping clothes. Glimmer then moved to remove Adora’s work clothes and was more than shocked by her discovery, a wedding ring tucked away into one of her pants pockets. Glimmer finished slipping Adora into her underwear and put the ring back on her finger, trying to ignore the pit in her stomach that formed as she thought about that discovery.

 

She curled up into a ball in bed and tried to pretend it was a dream or ignore what it most likely meant, whether or not she did so before she fell asleep is unknown.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Huh, so I was re-reading this whilst editing and realized that Adora and Catra’s first relationship is going to be emotionally manipulative but it might have actually been emotionally abusive. Boy that's was not the original plan but it also increases drama so I can't really stop myself. Apologies to anyone that has been or been around someone it that kind of relationship, this story might not be good for you to read and even if you think you're okay I'm definitely going to handle it badly given Catra and Adora's relationship.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hay two points of order and maybe read this one. 
> 
> One, if you're not keeping up with the tags I added abuse to this cause was going to be exploring Adora's abuse and like for example, this chapter has some pretty depressing stuff in it with abuse. A reminder that within the narrative Adora broke up with her abuser and that rarely goes well unless you have other people to support you cause otherwise, a whole mess of problems can occur, for example, what happens here where Catra is gone and Adora left alone to fend for her destroyed mind. 
> 
> Point of order 2, I wrote this one on a few different devices, most of them written without intended order and mostly to cover things I should have probably set up in the first two chapters. A lot of different character elements and plot hooks and things being set up so it's kinda dense on things you can learn. Sorry. Also, accidentally made the criminal elements stronger so now that has been added to the tags. Keep up with those, I update them whilst writing unreleased chapters in case one of them is upsetting to people so they don't get interested in a story and then have a curveball upset them.

Adora Colston and Catra Hurst, at this moment 19 years old were swinging from an old swing set in Adora’s back yard. It was summer and the sun was setting over the fence, the swing being their method to keep watching it as it disappeared. The year abroad had come to an end, their bags now packed to start university in just a week. They were going to leave after dinner with Adora's parents, Catra was going to propose. Sometimes you can live in a memory for a moment, but when Adora came to a sudden stop Catra accepted it, she knew what that meant.

 

“Why is it always here, why is this your last good moment with me?”

 

“Because this was the last time I thought to propose and didn’t do it. There was never another moment as happy as this one, I guess.”

 

“Hmm, I think this is the moment you realized what you had been doing to me for so long. The moment all your manipulations and lies fell into place in your head and you understood. You stopped loving me cause controlling me was to hard."

 

“Shut up. You are smarter than that. Adora is smarter than that. It took me years to understand everything. Years of thought about my life and what I did, years of regret and realizing my one relationship was an abusive mess. Fuck I still spend large parts of my day regretting what I did cause I can’t move past it. And I still love you, it's a problem but not loving you isn’t an option in my life.”

 

“Maybe. Then why weren’t things happier after this moment, why couldn't you suck enough happiness out of me after this moment to keep yourself happy. What caused that -” the next thing out of Adora’s mouth wasn’t even close to a sound a human can make. Give a pile of iron the ability to talk and the ability to feel pain before melting it down if you want a close approximation. Catra looked away from Adora and around them, time accelerated, the chains rusting away around her and the grass growing uncut twenty years passing by in seconds.

 

Catra was alone and in the dark, the sun leaving with Adora, now stuck in a place that once resembled her home in one form.  She reached into her pocket and pulled out the ring, she pressed it as hard as she could into her flesh but there was no pain. She was left to hope that she would wake up soon, she didn’t want to be alone.

 

* * *

 

Dreams present themselves differently to every person. Those that don’t dream often are likely to take some note of the ones that their mind holds onto as they pass into the waking world maybe even attributing it meaning and the opposite is true for those where they're common; a novel concept that you can easily forgo for other thoughts. Catra rests within that first group, once in a blue moon dreams that help her deal with her past. Adora on the other hand dreams unlike either of the common formats. Barely qualifying as a dream they are a series of old memories, an attempt to deal with repressed events from within her past. Common when she thinks too much on her past as today had done.

 

Adora let the dream take her when she awoke within it, this was a memory she hadn't been able to get over much less fighting against. She suppressed this memory in her waking days and she didn't have the mind to keep doing it. She would have live with walking through it once more, hopefully for the last time. That was what she thought last time though, so hope is slim in her mind. 

 

This was the day that she had put the whole puzzle together. However, before that was a dark hour that was most of the day. Her understanding of her past and how she lived her life into the future because of what happened today. Adora was drifted through one of the quads on university grounds, and putting the minimum amount of effort into not bumping into one of the other student’s also walking around like zombies. Everything was covered in a layer of grey, nothing to pull any part of her functional brain out. She should have had the muscle memory to wander over to her next class but apparently, it just wouldn't work and she was stuck where she was. 

 

He hadn't let her have other friends. A month after they started dating there had been an incident of sorts and Adora within the next thirty days he was her only friend. That memory was for a different day, a day to think about him, but this memory was without anyone and anything. Adora decided to just keep walked and walked right of campus and into town. The real walk of seven lonely and confused hours turned was turned minutes by her mind in the dream. Or maybe that was how it had felt in the moment, that wasn’t the part of the day that Adora remembers clearly anyway. She remembered that she had been starving herself to death without noticing, four days without eating anything suddenly realized before her.

 

Adora hated this part the most, the moments where an inability to take care of herself caused her to collapsed and couldn’t get back up to help herself. She hated feeling weak and being unable to care about herself, hated the feeling that she didn’t think she would actually get up at any point to save herself. She lay on the ground for longer than she really wanted to think about being alone and cold on the ground, classes had been at 8 and seven hours of walking, the next part of this memory at midnight. She had spent 9 hours half dead in a dirty alleyway, verging on being killed by dehydration or some criminal walking by, maybe something worse than death. All 9 hours played out in her dream, eyes flicking at the different shoes of people walking by. Mostly, however, she hated how she had let him make her like this. How he had her blame herself for his abuse.

 

Adora got lucky that day. Someone good had seen her lying there and thought to help the blond. A young idealist who was too easy to trust others. The young man she met that dad hadn’t brought colour back to Adora’s life, but he had saved her. Taught her what had happened over time and helped her deal with it. Even introduced her to a girl that he thought would be good for her. The dream ended their end of the dream, and as she woke up she made the mental note that Bow deserved even as much love as she could give him in the tattoo. 

 

Adora stirred slowly in her bed, the smell of something too sweet to be coffee no matter how much sugar you put in it was wafting into her nose. Which had three implications; Glimmer had woken up before Adora and at a minimum made her morning hot cocoa, and that Adora had forgotten to set her alarm. Then the third thought building from those two, if Glimmer was awake and drinking than Adora must be incredibly late for work. That was backed up by her phone displaying 11:43 am. Adora groaned and attempted to get up before Glimmer put her arm across her chest and pushed her down. 

 

“Sweetie, before you freak out, I already called Perfuma and she said that she doesn’t even want you to come in today so don’t worry about it.” Glimmer quickly regretted her words as the look of complete shock overtook Adora.

 

“What do you mean she doesn’t want me to do my job?”

 

“I don’t know, why does that even matter. But now you can spend all day with me and we can cuddle and work away at the wedding plans. That sounds fun right babe?”

 

“Yeah. Huh, when's the last time we talked I feel like I haven't seen you all week.” Glimmer returned a nod of agreement and Adora spoke up again, "Have you spent all week planning the wedding by yourself. 

 

“Yeah of course I have. I'm a rich woman so I don't have to leave my house, and I’m so deeply in love with you so our wedding is by far the most important thing in my life. Except for maybe you yourself, why would I even do anything else? Now you should go freshen up first, I’ll go grab the planning stuff.” Glimmer handed her cocoa over to the half-awake girl and started moving around their spacious bedroom to collect an outfit for the day.

 

Adora took maybe just a little too much time and pleasure in watching her soon to be wife getting dressed. Given she hadn't exactly seen her in a week staring just a little too much didn't seem like the greatest slight against her girlfriend. However, apparently, Glimmer disagreed based off her balling up of one of Adora’s shirt and throwing it in her face, which was enough to get her to start her day. One extensively long shower later, a lazy styling of her hair into something nice and some clothes she could leave the house in Adora walked into the open space kitchen/living room/dining room that at up most of the space in their home.

 

Glimmer was sitting on the kitchen island drinking another cup of cocoa, waiting for Adora to make them breakfast, Glimmer being banned from operating the stove after the third time a fire extinguisher needed to be used. She made something simple and quick vegan bacon and eggs, if either saw the irony in that they never voiced it, done in 12 minutes and served with toast and coffee for Adora provided by her fiancée. Apparently, the niceties of a relaxing workless life do not exist however and as they finished their plates Glimmer pulled out and started going over the two large folders with the wedding planning information. Adora had the sneaking suspicion this would be a harder day than her normal twelve hour work day. 

 

* * *

  

On the other side of town, a much less romantic and happy sight plays out with similar results. Scorpia waking up first alongside the sun rising, finding both Catra and Entrapta hadn’t bothered to go to their own beds last night and were curled up together on the old shag floor of their apartment. Scorpia, a smile on face to see her two girls sleeping well and comfortable, drew a bath in the bathroom and cleaned up for the day ahead of her. Friday was usually a big night at the parlour especially when someone throws a party nearby and drunk people walk in wanting changes.

 

She sat for probably too long thinking on different things, most of which were upsetting to the 37-year-old veteran. Some discomfort over illegal actions, no matter the size always sat in her head. Letting people receive piercings and tattoo’s whilst under the influence was a crime that always hung on her conscious, maybe as a supplement to what was happening in the basement that Scorpia had largely been left out of or what she and Catra had done for the Horde in the past. There were other things on her mind of greater significant however, things like Adora’s question from last night hung at the front of her mind though, as well as how she handled it. She regretted kicking her out of the car, thinking that had probably just confirmed her thought, for which Scorpia assumed the worst on. Usually, she only thought in the positive but Catra's personal business was important to her, and the thought that she might have outed her to the stranger was a bad one. That was Scorpio’s thought of the day sadly, what if she had fucked up. Regardless of that thought looming large she had to get Catra and Entrapta up to do their jobs sooner than they could probably get ready.

 

As she was finishing putting on today's outfit her phone rang and she rushed to answer it. A quick conversation later and she rushed into the main room. The two girls were still asleep and wrapped up in their cocoon of couch blanked and couch pillow that was deeply uncomfortable to sleep with. The large muscular women grabbed onto both of the girls and pulled them up, the two twigs passing for humans coming up to their feet without an issue and fast enough to cause some whiplash, waking up the two girls with an almost no effort.

 

“Oh, boy... 'Trapta, 9:45 someone scheduled a surprise visit and we need to go attend it. Fresh clothes and hit yourself with something that smells strong, and then down into the basement, I need to let her in. Also Catra you have Kyle's tattoo in an hour.” Scorpia spoke like she usually did, too happy and loud for her metaphorical sisters after just waking up, and too much for how worried she sounded. Both girls followed orders as soon as they were put down, without question. 

 

Sticking her head back in from the bathroom, toothbrush still half in her mouth, Catra spoke something along the lines of, “Who thinks they can plan a surprise visit to the shop?”

 

Which was dignified by the only response Scorpia could give as she and Entrapta hurried down the stairs, “Mom.” Catra choked on her toothpaste as she was told ‘Mother’ was coming, something that Catra defined as more or less the worst thing that can possibly happen.

 

Catra was almost hyperventilating as soon as Scorpia had opened her mouth, “Mother” was thirty times worse than Adora had been at first contact. Fear was the only thing now flowing through Catra’s veins. She attempted to freshen up but she couldn’t breathe well enough to do much of anything. Meditation attempts failed her as she couldn’t find a way to stable her breath, which left her one bad option. Medicine cabinet, some Librium that she wasn't supposed to have, and way more than was considered intended dose.

 

Catra sat down just waiting for her body to either stop shaking or to start seizing up in an overdose, for which apparently luck was on her side. She felt like she had just had the shit beat out of her, but her heart had stopped hammering. The clock in the kitchen read 15 till Kyle was supposed to show up so Catra put on a patch and a new outfit before heading downstairs and readying her equipment. 

  

* * *

 

2 hours and one tattoo gun tossed in a sink later and Catra was now alone in her shop. Kinda. The downstairs door hadn’t opened since they had headed down earlier, which meant that she was still on the property. Catra was getting twitchy again, she was more confident in herself after just finishing a piece, but that women were the scariest person she knew. Catra started to think about how she was gonna have a talk with the girl selling it, 2 hours is definitely too short. Catra knew that if Mom saw her when she left she was going to question Catra and not wanting that she needed an excuse to not be in the shop. Adora, she was a perfectly good excuse. Out visiting another client and doing her job. 

 

Perfuma turned her head up from the, slightly sultry, novel in her hand as the bell on the door went off. The women that entered was less scary than the one that had met Adora last night, but she scarred Perfuma much more. When you work in a dangerous place you have to familiarise yourself with who works for who if you want to stay safe. Black jeans, red tank top where Horde colours and some non-human body part meant lieutenant or higher. She bit down on her lip as her nerves started into overtime, Entrapta had said that no one was going to threaten the shop, but she was really doubting that right now. 

 

The girl walked up to the counter and stared Perfuma in the eyes, “Hey, I'm Catra I run the tattoo parlour if ‘Trapra hasn’t mentioned me. Adora said she wanted me to come over to deal with her tattoo, but I was busy yesterday. She said she would be here.”

 

Perfuma released her lip and a held breath, which just led to a cock of the head from Catra, before she responded with, “No, her fiancée called her in sick so she’s out. If she feels better, she’ll come in, she's like that, but I don’t know if that's gonna happen. There is a bouquet with your name on it in the back though.” Catra’s ears perked up at that and Perfuma headed into the back room of the flower shop to get it. A bouquet for her was a strange concept, and yet enticing, the back of her brain that still craves love from Adora upturned by the idea. A less love-addled part of her brain asked the question of why, why would Adora want to give Catra a singles flower, much less a bouquet, given she was basically a stranger designing a tattoo.

 

It was a pretty bundle of flowers, too much purple for Catra’s taste but it was still nice to look at. And then she was greeted by the answer as she read the tag attached to the bundle. An order form with a long list of twenty or so bullet points topped off with the title of Tattoo Parts. Line 13, Glimmers favourite flowers which Catra was confident she was holding. Catra’s next line of thought was a suppression line for receiving flowers for someone else, why give her the bouquet and what about all of the other things on the list. She had two thoughts, neither of which were especially healthy. The thought she had made the bundle physically because she subtly wanted to give Catra a bundle of flowers or she just needed to take a picture of the bundle to give to Catra. Another twenty things were on that list and didn't exist in the physical space, Catra thought of pictures. Her phone was broken so she couldn't get the pictures. 

 

Catra was almost confident that her phone wasn't fixed and even if it was running into her was a bad option, the only way to get those photos would be to talk to the girl herself. Catra thanked Perfuma as she left the store and dropped the flowers off in the parlour before heading out on her bike, apparently, the night of stalking was already paying off.

 

* * *

 

Thirty minutes away and later Glimmer was sprawled out on the couch staring at the TV and channel surfing only half a second slower than the TV could even display what she had flipped to. Adora, on the other hand, was doing what the girls had planned to work on today, which currently involved calling a seemingly endless different wedding photographers of which none seemed to be available on the wedding day. 2 months was probably too late to start planning on their parts. Another two calls of ‘already scheduled an appointment that day’ later and Adora gave up and sprawling out on the couch with Glimmer.

 

“I am glad you find joy in planning this wedding because this is terrible for me. Just dealing with all these people is so frustrating?”

 

Glimmer just shut off the TV and turned her head towards Adora as she started to speak, “Well, I want my wedding to be perfect and I refuse to let things stop me so it's not that hard. Sounds like the hu- “, and then Glimmer was cut off by their doorbell going off. The two girls shot each other a look of ‘do you know what that is’ and with a resounding no from either Adora took the initiative to open the door when it went off a second time.

 

When she opened the door Adora was greeted by Catra, who was swivelling back and forth on one of her heals outside of Adora’s house.

 

“Hey Adora.”

 

“Hi, um, why are you at my house?”

 

“I made an assumption and wanted to stop by because of it. I broke my phone last night and wanted to check if you had anything for me after I got the flowers from your friend.”

 

“Okay... umm I really don't. I wasn’t planning to give you the list with the flowers ‘cause I don’t have stuff ready.” Adora stood there for a second staring at Catra, swivelling her head to look back at Glimmer and then stepped outside closing the door behind her.

 

“You already bailed work and now your bailing on the misses, now why is that?” Adora tried to hide a look of confusion that took over a Catra was speaking, thinking about how Perfuma had said not to come in today, but trying to put it into the back of her mind as Catra continues to speak.

 

“Uhh, um that’s interesting. Anyway. Well, I was talking to Scorpia last night and she said that her friend broke her phone cause of an ex she hasn't seen in a while and I have a similar experience. If you want to talk about it.”

 

Catra popped her lips and cast her eyes away from Adora. On one hand, talking about Adora without Adora knowing and vice verse was going to be painful and unhelpful. On the other hand, excuses to talk to Adora where one of the things she was most interested in. 

 

Catra sat down on the step, Adora following, leaning back against the front door and started to speak, “You don't have the full story. Scoripa doesn't have it. I have had contact with her, she walked back into my life a few days ago apropos of nothing and doesn't remember me. Let's just say it wasn't the best relationship and us interacting hasn't helped any.”

 

“Sorry, I was wrong. Very different situation. Here I am being reasonably paranoid about my ex who I'm never going to see again. Seeing her again must be really hard, sorry you have to deal with that.”

 

Adore turned her head to look at Catra who was focused up in the midday sky and watching clouds go by, the thought of how pretty Catra was lingering just within her unconscious mind. Within her conscious mind, however, a different thought played, the thought of how much her face reminded her of _him_ and the question she had asked last night. She thought for a moment to ask the source this time but decided against it. A relationship between her ex and... whatever Catra was, something between a person you work with and someone who you try and comfort in times of distress, was an insane idea and something she would have to put behind her if she wanted to be friends. Fear of another person isn't good grounds for a relationship, much less fear of someone unrelated to that person. Adora turned her head to stare at the clouds as well.

 

“You apologize too much. Talking about her did make me feel better though, you wanna try it or you have to get back to Sparkles?”

 

“I"m not sure talking to Glimmer about it would be a good idea so yeah, actually, that would be nice. Someone reminded me of him recently, and he was emotional manipulative I guess is the right term.”

 

“Like isolate you from your friends, make all of your decisions or have him approve your choices, made you feel like you didn’t matter, make you feel terrible and at fault for everything wrong in your and his life manipulative?”

 

“Yeah, most of the things that appear on your average list of forms emotional abuse some other stuff too. You live through something similar with your ex?”

 

“No, she’s very nice actually, but I have experience with a relationship like that as well.”

 

“I’m sorry about that too.”

 

“Stop apologizing. Besides, you shouldn’t be, not without all the information. Uhh, anyway, I’m gonna go I have a job to do. Say hi to wifie for me.” Catra got up and walked over to her bike, Adora watching her go until she had pulled off of her street. She stood up with a lot of things on her mind. Glimmer, Bow, really any of her friends had never been abused, it was strange to have someone that could relate with direct experience. She had questioned her relationship with Catra whilst they talked and now, even after only knowing each other for a few hours, now she was defined simply as friends.

 

Adora opened the door to be greeted by Glimmer inches from the door and as close to fuming as Adora had ever seen her fiancée get.

 

“H- “

 

“Who was that and why was she outside our house?!”

 

“Uhh- “

 

“Answer me, Adora.”

 

“That was Catra. She’s doing my tattoo, we were talking about it, you want them to be secret, so we talked outside.” Adora got all of that out in a good 2-second mad dash of connected words, the fact that she was lying through her teeth making it more impressive. 

 

Glimmer let go of the tension and anger that was invading her entire body and cast her eyes away from her wife to be, “Okay. I’m sorry I reacted like that.”

 

Adora let out a light chuckle, “It’s okay. Even if I wish you didn’t get jealous just ‘cause I talk to another girl.”

 

“It’s not all of them only the pretty ones, even if she was a little mannish.”

 

“Alright well, that’s just mean regardless of what you're implying.” Adora places her arms around Glimmers neck and leaned in for a quick kiss, “Your much too pretty to stoop to petty insults.” Adora gave her fiancée another kiss, this one much longer before Glimmer pulled back.

 

“Just pretty?”

 

“You are incredibly beautiful and the most attractive person I have ever met.”

 

“Hmm, better. We haven't seen each other all week and we haven’t had any _fun_ in weeks...” Glimmer pulled her short down half an inch as she talked.

 

“Oh my god, I can’t believe you.” With a dumb smile on her face, Adora pulled off Glimmers shirt and leaned in for another kiss.

 

* * *

 

A good half hour later Catra pulled back into the parking lot to find that the car she had begun to dread was gone. She let out a deep sigh which she has been holding a large part of the tension in her stomach. The thought that she would just be more upset the next time they met played alongside the relief but given Catra had missed her on her last 3 visits what was one more?

 

When she headed inside Scorpia was laying down on the ground in her half of the parlour. Catra was prepared to walk past her and up into their apartment to finally eat something today but when the giant women let out a large and pointed sight she stopped.

 

“What’s up Scorpia.”

 

“Come here.”

 

Catra walked into the room and stood over the other girl, “What’s up Scorpia.”

 

“Well, Weaver is really mad at you.”

 

“Yeah, and what’s new?”

 

“Well, shes really mad this time. She said that if you don’t show up at her office tomorrow, she’s going to have some people come down here and drag you there beaten to a pulp.”

 

Catra stared down at Scorpia, a look of sadness and worry on her face “You're not lying?”

 

“Nope.”

 

Catra laid down on the floor next to Scorpia. The happiness that had built in her brain as she drove home thinking about Adora was crumbling now. Plans to woo her back to Catra, or at least get her into the couple's bedroom, replaced by the thought of the problems with dating Catra. Catra was a criminal, largely retired at this point, but still a criminal and a very important criminal a that. Dating her might make a good safety net of protection but it came with a large target on her back. 

 

If the irony in Catra being worried about causing Adora physical harm when she was had and was likely to increase her psychological harm with her plans she didn’t voice it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fun fact I took three years of psychology in High School.
> 
> Oh btw for anyone interested in my continued talk on Heathers, gave West End another shot. I like all of the cast except for Veronica, Kurt and Ram better than the original but really not a big fan of how the songs have changed over time. I Am Damaged being the greatest offender in my opinion, although it's also one of my favourite songs ever so that might be why. Final verdict, southern JD is pretty hot but Fletcher has always been the most crucial element of Heathers so West End could be better.
> 
> To talk about my own story; more plot next time. Set up shit and all that jazz. I'm ace so where not getting closer to sex than that.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh shit, it's been a month. Not a month of this story running like was supposed to be with this chapter but a month in between chapters. Sorry. 
> 
> Anyway, I don't wanna explain my complicated life and why I wasn't working on this for three weeks so I'm not going to. Just know my roommate fucking sucks, also I said three weeks cause I did spend the last week writing this but I also re-wrote Chapters 1 and 2 cause I hated them when I was re-reading this to understand myself.
> 
> Chapter 4, let's go. Re-reading of chapters 1 and 2 is optional except the last like three paragraphs in 2. Go read those.

Catra was not looking forward to getting her shit kicked in today, but to be fair no one ever looked forward to getting beat up. Rogelio and his gang might not be the most effective bouncers within the Horde, but they knew Catra. She had trained those fuckers before she had retired to just giving them tattoos. That would never be enough to earn their loyalties in special though, which mean visiting Weaver was mandatory willing or not. Catra dressed in her nicest outfit, which wouldn’t be nearly as good as Weaver’s worst, but it was along gang colours. It also sported Catra’s one tie, the one present she had gotten from Weaver that she had quickly realized was designed to be used to pull the cat girl around like a dog on a leash. It was four in the morning, Scorpia and Entrapta were both still asleep. Weaver was definitely awake and Catra found it necessary to be at the women’s office before her. Set a good impression or something along those lines.

4:45 AM, deep within Fright Zone, someone in Horde colours selling bodies and drugs on every street corner. Catra’s bike was the only thing moving on the road, but cars sat in alleyways all throughout her path which meant running wasn’t a good option. This wasn’t just for Catra, she knew that this was routine security in case of an attack on the boss, but in the moment, it felt like a personal attack on Catra. She pulled the motorcycle to a stop outside the way to nice looking bank that served as Horde headquarters and swallowed the two Librium in her pocket. She wanted to vomit, either from the pills or fear of what Weaver was going to do to her. She chose to blame the pills despite the fact that she knew better.

The doors were unlocked and despite the place appearing to be empty Catra didn’t trust that for a second. Someone was hidden just outside of the common sight lines, waiting to step out and kill a potential threat before they could react. Catra couldn't find any of them, maybe it was too early. Catra hoped it was too early for everyone to already be in place. She knew it wasn’t, she had worked this job before, but false hope is nice. A small office room towards the back of the bank had a low light shining from beneath the frame. She was already in the office, and when Catra raised her hand to knock a harsh speaking of Catra’s name drifted out and she entered.

Weaver was one of the prettiest women Catra had ever met, the one compliment she could give the older women, outside of her ability to strike fear into people’s hearts. Except for maybe in this moment where she sported a simple clay mask over her entire face. Catra slowly approached the women’s desk and sat down in the one chair exactly opposite of her.

“Miss Weaver, what can I help you with?”

“M… Catra do you see my face?” Catra flipped from scared to angry way to fast than was safe regarding this woman. She usually waited to play the transphobic card until later, after she had crushed Catra’s spirit.

Catra growled as quite as she could before answering the question, “No Miss Weaver, why do you ask.”

“I ask because that rat you keep in your basement failed to remove a scar from my face, and made everything much worse. I want her severely punished, and I want you to do it with your own hands.”

“Why not do it yourself, you had the a- “Apparently Catra wasn’t the only one already fed up with the other as she was dragged tie first into the table. Catra was frozen in fear at not having even seen the other women move whilst staring directly at her.

“Catra, you are not going to talk back to me.” Weaver grabbed something from within her desk and then the sound of a switchblade being popped filled the room. Another sound of it being slammed into the table. Catra couldn’t feel it, they hadn’t figured out nerve connections and brain impulses yet, but she could feel the weight of it in her ear. “Now what are you going to do.”

“Fuck you.”

“Wrong answer young man.” Tugging on the tie opposite of the knife, Catra very happy that she couldn’t feel pain in the ear. The feeling of her scalp getting stretched out was enough to make sure of that.

“Go back to my base and punish Entrapta for her slight against me.”

A pregnant pause from Catra as Weaver continued to pull her opposite the knife, “Yes, Mam.”

“There you go, maybe one day you will earn your title.” Weaver didn’t let up on the pulling, Catra just continued to wait for her to finish. The pressure of the knife left once she got far enough away, which would be comforting except for the sound that she heard with it was an alarming one. A tearing one, god she was happy to not be able to feel it.  


“She can make you bleed but she can’t fix my face. Clean up the mess your leaving.” Weaver let go of Catra and left the room, Catra stayed for a moment just releasing the breath she had been holding and steadied herself. She used the tie to wipe up the blood on the desk and then used it to tie off the ear, making the resolving thought of whatever Entrapta did she was happy for it.

* * *

That had been more than a week ago. It was now the Monday following the Monday after their meeting. Catra was staring at the door waiting for Lonnie to bust it down or Kyle to walk in and start crying. And yet, eight days with nothing of the likes. Catra also had more important things to focused on, like the images she was supposed to be laying out or the girl that had was giving Catra a look of confusion most of the time. Within the mentioned eight days Adora had given her a large box full of pictures and they had a design for everything that Adora wanted to include.

“a-. Catra. Catra. Catra. Catra! Catraaaaa.”

“Uhh, Adora what are you doing?”

“Well like three minutes ago you stopped talking and started staring at the door, so I just started saying your name over and over again trying to get your attention. 52 times Catra, 52.”

“Jesus. I just have a lot of stuff on my mind. Anyway, so we have this large spot on your triceps and every time I ask you just say bow so what do you want for that. Also, you still haven’t given me what colour or designs you wanna do in the blank spaces.”

“Oh, I haven’t given you his picture yet?”

  
“Bow is a living creature?”

“Yeah.” Adora pulled out her wallet and from it an old picture judging from the signs of age on it. It was a picture of an Adora who looked borderline dead and a young black man that Catra though looked way too happy to be caring around a half-dead woman.

“Huh, so you have an arm worth of things that represent Sparkles…” There was a return call from Adora saying Glimmer, a small set call and response for their budding friendship. “… without any pictures of her but you wanna give this guy most of the back of your upper arm?”

“Look. You remember when we talked about my abusive ex?”

“Yeah. Don’t think it would be just to forget about your plight.”

“So, when we broke up, he left me alone. And I was so dependent on him that I just spiralled out of control and had given up on living. Bow was the person that found me and rehabilitated me, he is entirely the reason I am still alive. So yeah he gets a lot.”

“Jesus. That’s... that’s bad. Alright got any more angles I can work with.”

“Um I mean yeah; however, I was thinking that maybe. Look I’m having a party tomorrow, and I was thinking maybe you should come. I think outside of Perfuma you have seen me more in the last seven days than anyone attending that party.”

“You want me to come to a party or come meet your friend?”

“I mean meet Bow and all that, but yeah party.”

“Maybe. What kind of party and where?”

“Small group, eight or so people, hanging out at my place. Light drinking, something special from Perfuma. Leaving work at six so starting when I get home.”

“If I have nothing better to do, I guess I’ll come over.”

“Perfuma already invited Entrapta and she knows you’re not doing anything tonight.”

“Great she’s betraying me now. I’ll come to your party, begrudgingly. I do need actual pictures though; I can’t draw well drunk.”

“Alright. My lunch break is well over so I’m gonna head back. If you close up early ‘Trapta is coming with us so feel free to join.” Adora had stopped in the doorway to finish her though and finally left as she finished speaking. Catra sat back in her chair watching the blonde’s ponytail flap around in the wind as she headed across the street.

Catra called after her despite the fact there was no way she could hear her. “Still didn’t answer my question on the gr- wait why the fuck are you having a party on a Monday!?”

* * *

Catra yelled she was going on her lunch break to the almost empty store, Scorpia giving a positive assurance as she walked across the store into the employs only area and then downstairs into the bio shop. A dark room with improperly finished brick walls and a futuristic pod with a series of tubes running between it and a series of talks full of chemicals. Sitting on one wall was a long workbench full of power tools and a purple haired girl, fiddling with the remnants of Catra’s phone from last weeks out lash. It had been in way more pieces when Catra had last seen it, but she wasn’t in the mood to actually question Entrapta’s intentions, she needed the girl for a surrogate. She grabbed Entrapta by the scruff of her neck and hauled her out of the basement with a high level of protest and thrashing.

Up the stairs and into the bathroom, Catra tossed Entrapta into the tub. “’ Trapta did Perfuma ask you to a party.”

“Yes. Why?”

“Ok so were you planning at any point to clean up before the party?”

“Given I haven’t spilt any chemicals on me today I assume that I am in no need of cleaning up.” Catra opened up her the hand she had dragged Entrapta by to show off a layer of oil that had come off of her. “Oh. Alright then, I guess I will clean up.”

Entrapta started shredding her clothes and Catra flung her hand to cover up her eyes. “Ok, I wasn’t done talking with you.”

“Apologies, what else were you wishing to discuss.”

Catra didn’t move her hand, Entrapta and social standards didn’t go well together, and she doubted the other girl had bothered to put her clothes back on. “What is going on with you and Perfuma. And before you ask, romantically.”

“Nothing.” There was a noticeable edge of sadness in Entrapta’s voice.

“Do you want something romantic to happen between you?”

“I… I don’t know. I think so, but this is a very unfamiliar situation for me.”

“Right. Sadly not the area of expertise for me or Scorpia, but I do know this is a party with her friends and if you need to be able to get along with her friends. So, clean up and when you dress, dress in something nice to impress them.”

“Ok, understood. Thank you.” As Entrapta spoke Catra she walked out and closed the door heading back to her room, the sound of the bath starting up running loudly through the apartment’s thin walls. 

It took Catra two hours to go through every pair of pants and shirts hung up on the closet rods crossing across her room in various places. At the end of that process, she had decided on an outfit consisting of her only non-red top, a long sleeve blue shirt with a wolf on it that she had definitely bought whilst drunk, and a pair of black leggings with her usual leather boots and jacket. She zipped the jacket to cover up the wolf, that was not the impression she wanted to give to people she was meeting for the first time.

With four more hours until the other girls where leaving Catra made up her makeup a little better than she could normally be bothered to do and then spent another hour criticizing Entrapta’s clothing choices and doing her makeup. Three more hours of work, Entrapta was not allowed to re-enter her work station during that time but still managed to reproduce the smell of a chemist lab that hung on her, and then Adora and Perfuma walked through the door to head over to the get-together. Four women piled into the car at six o’clock and headed for the other side of town.

* * *

That was by far the last clear memory Catra had before now, as she glanced around a kitchen infinitely larger than her own and to a clock saying it was two in the morning. A headache started forming as she tried to process any form of thought and managed to pull a few parts of what she had done since arriving at Adora’s house. A group of people sitting in the living room she and Entrapta had been introduced to; a man dressed as a pirate saying he was, in fact, a private eye and not an actor, a sixteen-year-old on the thirty under thirty list, a man head deep in The Housing Question, she knew other people had shown up at some point but weren’t sure if they showed up later or earlier.

She knew Glimmer had shown up later, that memory stuck out well against the haze of alcohol and weed clouding her mind. The first half hour of the party Catra had been right next to Adora, but then her fiancée showed up and drove her away to take her place alongside the host. That was also when the serious drinking started to happen. After that everything turns into a massive painful blur, she could smell weed in the room and she was confident it was somewhere in her system but that was the extent of her ability to deduce what had happened.

A moment to stumble around the kitchen until she hit a fridge and pulled a water bottle from within. She looked around the room with the light from the fridge illuminating the space, finding only Perfuma and Entrapta curled up together leaning against a cabinet. She also happened to notice a small flashlight sitting on the counter top and grabbed it as after closing the fridge door and started walking around the house looking for the front door. She ran into something that piqued her interest long before she found the door and stopped in front of it.

A wooden cabinet sticking out from the wall, it’s top coved in a series of picture frames. Catra panned the light over a photo of Glimmer and Adora, both of them barely awake but completely adorable in the picture wrapped up with each other. Even after someone else had just woken them up there was a look in their eyes as they stared at each other that Catra could only find one word for.

Love.

That’s what love looked like, and she was also confident she had almost never seen that look on Adora’s face. Not once had Catra ever seen the blond look so happy as she did at that moment wrapped up in her lover. The arm holding the flashlight began to shake and Catra forced herself to continue to look for a way out of the house. She found a door handle, both of her arms shaking in front of her the sound of her breathing uneven dominating the audio world. She wrapped both hands around the handle, flashlight falling to the ground and spinning around on the ground somewhere.

The door opened, Catra stepped out, she was almost free of the feeling that was overwhelming her. Brisk night air hitting her face as she exited the house and onto the front porch, the only problem being she didn’t have a way home. In her pocket, a weight different than normal but recognizable. The weight of a phone. She pulled it out, not Catra’s she was sure of that given it wasn’t broken and it was very new.

Picture of Glimmer on the lock screen, holding up her finger with her ring on it. Adora’s phone probably, how she got it was not something Catra wanted to question at this moment. Lock screen, password. Six numbers. Catra sat down on the ground and thought about what possible combination she could have used. Birthday by year or day too short, Glimmers to regardless of what day it was. Catra bit her lip and though hard on thing Adora and she had experienced.

She put in 110964 and the phone opened. The eleventh of September, the day that Adora’s grandmother died at the age of sixty-four. That was a day that stuck out well in Catra’s head, hours spent holding Adora as she ruined one of her new-nu-metal shirts with her tears. Occasionally stopping crying to eat ice cream or watch TV as some kind of comfort, but it always went back to crying at some point.

The pit in Catra’s stomach grew more as she though on that day, the things she knew about Adora the other girl didn’t in return. No one should have been able to answer that question except for Adora, maybe Glimmer but Catra doubted even that. Catra had felt bad before, she had three suicide attempts under her belt for god sakes, but this was the lowest moment she could think of. Her love of Adore versus the fact that she had found someone that she actually loved for the first time, probably since the death of her grandmother when they were fourteen. Eight years with Catra where Adora hadn’t ever really loved her, and yet she was still hung up on those days. Not only hung up but wanting Adora back, like she was something that had ever belonged to Catra in the first place.

Adora was happy and Catra was a threat to that happiness. Her love for Adora the worst possible thing that could happen to the other girl. Catra plugged Scorpia’s phone number into the dial pad and called the other girl, she picked up and was headed straight over to pick up Catra and Entrapta. Catra placed the phone back inside the house and tried not to focus on how much she sucked, trying to figure out how to stop loving the blond before she ruined her life as well. Her mind drifted towards the though path she had only touched on instead, the thoughts of unaware knowledge.

Her gut twisted again, she felt like a stalker and a creep. She knew Adora’s favourite flower and why it was the daylily. She knew first-hand how she felt about her grandmother and her parent's divorce and her stepmother because they had grown up together. Adora, on the other hand, knew nothing about Catra, beyond what she did for work, and even then, the more illicit parts where far from opaque. Her gut continued to twist the hatred for herself growing by the seconds as she waited for Scorpia to drag her away from this nightmare.

When Scorpia arrived she was too late to help Catra.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey why did I include a line that implies a 100% nu-metal revival, why'd I do that? Find out on one of the two lesbian days of visibility depending on when I finish this small side project.
> 
> Sorry, didn't wanna cliff hanger this but I wanted to get the chapter out, I promise not to miss a month this time.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Only like a day late this time, which doesn't break my promise. The chapter is kinda short, but to be fair only like one of them isn't short so for this story, it's normal length.

Hay are you okay?”

 

Catra spun her head around to the sight of a vagile recognized figure, Bow standing in the dark doorway of the house. Catra ran her sleeve over her eyes to clear away the tears forming there and stood up from her sitting position on the porch. She wrapped her arms around his form and despite a sound of confusion from the boy he quickly returned the hug.

 

“Seriously Catra what’s wrong?”

 

“How do you know my name?”

 

“How drunk did you get?”

 

“This isn’t helpful.”

 

“Agreed, why are you crying at three in the morning outside the house?”

 

“Why are you awake at three in the morning?”

 

“Please stop.”

 

“Fine. I was thinking about my ex.”

 

“Oh, do you need someone to talk to.”

 

“Yeah that would be nice, but you need to be able to keep a secret.”

 

“From who?”

 

“Everyone.”

 

“All of the people alive? What if the president asks?”

 

“Can’t tell it to the president, no. Nobody. Ever.”

 

“Okay, so what about your ex.”

 

Bow and Catra both released their arms and sat down on in the doorway together.

 

“Don’t freak out, please. You’re going to hate me but don’t wake everyone else up.”

 

“Catra I don’t think you could say anything that would immediately make me hate you?”

 

“You know Adora’s ex?”

 

“Yeah, did your ex abuse you as he did to her?”

 

“Bow… Bow Adora’s ex isn’t a guy.”

 

“Why would she lie about that and what... does that hav- Oh” As Bow was speaking Catra rolled up her pants to show off a small trans pride flag on her ankle. “So, you’re…”

 

“Yeah.”

 

“You should leave.”

 

“Alright.”

 

Catra sat up and started walking away from the house. She heard the sound of something behind hit with as much force as a person could muster, almost wanted to turn back and let that punch go for the person it was indented for. Her feet managed to carry her back into town, although her brain was not involved in that process well enough to know where in town.

 

* * *

 

The next day Adora and Perfuma stumbled into work two hours later than they were supposed to, although given they’re co-owners and no one was scheduled to pick anything up late is purely a term of choice. Because of this the two girls simply pushed back their daily calendar by two hours and went on with business as usual, up until the point where Adora and Perfuma decided to take their lunch breaks.

 

Both headed across the way to The Shaping Staff, in looking for its various employees for various reasons. Perfuma chose the place because, by her own admittance after some pestering from Adora during the day, she wanted to talk to Entrapta regarding the most heated and drunk make-out session of last night and its meaning in their relationship. Adora, on the other hand, had been using the half hour every day to talk with Catra regarding, at least in the largest amounts, the different parts of the working tattoo design.

 

However, both of these plans apparently fell outside of the realm of things happening. The door’s where unlocked, and the open sign continued to blink inside of the front window, however, the shop was completely void of anyone. Perfuma called Entrapta, the phone behind the staff door rang out. Adora called Catra, straight to voicemail as expected from a broken phone. They tested the staff door, it didn’t budge.

 

With a shrug of their shoulders, the two girls left the shop to go find somewhere to actually eat lunch. Passing through the parking lot Adora couldn’t take her eyes off the recently familiarized motorcycle and hatchback waiting for their owners.

 

* * *

 

The day after that Adora looked across and noticed the open sign was blacked out and decided to break up her usual schedule. She pulled out her phone and called up her fiancée, the other women picking up almost immediately.

 

“Adora, what’s up?” There’s a certain way a person speaks where you can hear a smile on their face without seeing it, and that effect was the one Adora was greeted by from Glimmer.

 

“Nothing special, are you busy?”

 

“I have to go see Netossa cause of my design at two, that’s all.”

 

“Awesome, can I pick you and take you to lunch then.”

 

“Yeah sure, yeah. That would be amazing.”

 

“Alright, I’ll go steel Perfuma’s car, be over as soon as I can. You pick out a place.”

 

“Kay.” Adora hung up as Glimmer spoke and grabbed Perfuma’s key from her outstretched hand.

 

“Thank you.”

 

“Don’t worr- actually you owe me one.”

 

“Sure.”

 

Adora left the shop and hopped into Perfuma’s car to visit her wife to be, however, her active mind focused more on the two vehicles that still refused to move in the parking lot.

 

* * *

 

Thursday rolled around and when Adora made it into work she still had some parts of a smile on her face with her fiancée still prominently in her mind. However, as the day passed her mood was further dragged down, stagnant signs slowly corrupting her thought processes. She locked eyes with the blank lifeless open sign of the Tattoo Parlour, no signs of movement in the past three days settling inside of the windows. She was outside of the store a few times, the car and bike she was so accustomed to still sitting in the same place.

 

As the end of the day rolled on and the two girls moved into the car to head home for the night, Adora pulled out her phone and quickly took pictures of the two vehicles. She spent too much time looking at the photo, memorising the position relative to the lines just to make sure that if it ever moved, even a single inch, she would be aware of it.

 

As she walked up to her front door, she stopped right outside it, the only light guiding her through the darkness was that admitted from the picture open on it. Adora looked down at the photo of Catra’s bike and then back up at her front door. She quickly deleted the photos and tried to clear her mind of the detail. As she settled into bed and wrapped herself around Glimmer’s sleeping body, she questioned why she let her mind get so obsessed.

 

* * *

 

As noon on Friday rolled around Adora glanced down at the phone ringing on the counter. Three missed calls from Glimmer, three voicemails to go with them. Adora had been distracted by the thing she most wished wasn’t distracting her. Her eyes had spent every moment a customer wasn’t in the shop focusing on the opposed shop's sign.

 

Adora kept her eyes focused on the phone, turning on the first voice mail. Glimmer calling to ask if she wanted to do anything tonight, general and unassuming statements that Adora could fill in with her own plans. Glimmer, the women she was marrying was trying to get her attention and she was busy thinking about a different woman.

 

“what is wrong with me”

 

A call from across the shop. “What was that?”

 

“Nothing Perfuma, everything’s fine.”

 

Adora left the shop to look in the parking lot, chastising herself quietly over whatever was compelling her to act like this. The phone sounded off once again and ran to voicemail. Perfuma reached for the little device and answered it.

 

“Adora finally.”

 

“Nope.”

 

“Oh… Perfuma how’s it going.”

 

“Could be better, got ghosted. Maybe.”

 

“Don’t you work across the street from that girl?”

 

“Just across the sidewalk yeah, the shop’s been closed all week. No one home, the number she gave me just goes over there.”

 

“Jesus, isn’t that like the third girlfriend that has bailed on you?”

 

“Don’t remind me.”

 

“Sorry. Do you know where Adora is?”

 

“She’s out right now.” A break as Perfuma opened the door and glanced around outside. “She’s looking at some motorcycle in the parking lot. Want me to get her on the line.”

 

“Yes please.”

 

“Alright.”

 

* * *

 

Saturday Adora left the house early, really early. She left the house at four in the morning, waking Glimmer in the process. As Adora quietly closed the door Glimmer got out of bed and waited in the living room for her to come back in. Glimmer waited, and waited, and waited. An hour later she was sitting half-awake on the couch hoping Adora was coming back. Glimmer made herself a cup of cocoa and settled in to wait.

 

Fourteen long hours later and Adora walked back through the door, Glimmer having downed more than double that in cups that now cluttered up the coffee table.

 

“Hi babe, you just wake up?”

 

Glimmer glanced down out her outfit and the reminded that all she had done today was drink cocoa and worry, she hadn’t showered, hadn’t changed out of her sleep clothes. She internally chastised herself for her behaviour.

 

“Um yeah, how long have you been out.”

 

“Maybe an hour might have even woken you up. Sorry if I did.” Adora walked over and gave Glimmer a kiss on the forehead.

 

“It’s fine.” _It’s not fine, nothing is fine. Why are you lying to me, are you at least wearing the engagement ring this time?_ “I got up like ten minutes ago, so you didn’t do anything.” _Don’t look at the table, don’t look at the table._

“That’s nice, it’s six so how about we go out and get dinner.”

 

“Yeah sure, can you call Bow while I freshen up, he’s been dodging me all week.” Glimmer said that with an incredibly palpable level of spite in her voice. Adora missed the target, however, whilst it might be true Bow had been avoiding her all week, she wasn’t upset about it, not enough to do that. No, that edge was all because Adora had been avoiding her since they had lunch earlier in the week.

 

* * *

 

Sunday cleared without issue, likely by Glimmer’s choice instead of Adora’s. The purple and paranoid women left early to visit Netossa, trying to put whatever was happening with Adora out of her mind visiting happy memories with a family friend.

 

Then on Monday Adora headed back into work and Glimmer want back to plan the wedding. On Monday Adora stared out the window of her shop at the mass of people. People dressed in their mourning clothes walking around the shopping centre. Adora was terrified by the sight, trying her hardest to ignore a source she could, in fact, pin down. The car hadn’t moved, the bike hadn’t moved, the sign still wasn’t turned on.

 

“Seriously, radio silence?”

 

“Yeah, I’ve been trying for a week, Adora. Entrapta never picks up, I’m calling every hour and every day and it’s just silence. If you went inside, I’m sure you’d hear it ringing in the staff area.”

 

Adora needed a distraction from, well everything. “Every hour for the past few days, kinda obsessive?”

 

“Fuck off, we were almost dating. I can worry.” Perfuma also needed to distract herself.  “You’re overly nervous about Catra given that she’s your newest friend.”

 

“It doesn’t feel like that. You ever met someone you feel gets you, just right off the bat. No need to learn about them. Catra’s like that like she can read my soul like no one else. Or something, that sounds dumb.” As Adora went on with chastising herself for her words, Perfuma began to speak.

 

“Jesus, cancel the wedding Adora is in love with another woman.”

 

Adora blushed and darted her eyes back to the sign, more about getting away from her business partner than usual. “Don’t even joke about that Perfuma.”

 

“Sorry but ‘read my soul like no one else’ is girlfriend talk, not new best friend talk.”

 

“I don’t have a crush on Catra, stop that.”

 

“You said crush but okay.”

 

“You said, girlfriend.”

 

“Shush.”

 

“Fine, something else. Why do you think everyone is in blacks?”

 

“Idunno, I guess punks aren’t cool anymore. Maybe a goth convention. Put everything we have in red and black in the window.”

 

“Yeah sure.”

 

Adora moved around the shop collecting different flowers and placing them in the wooden buckets full of flower placed up against the window in front of the shop. Originally, she had just started placing them haphazardly, albeit still something to draw the eyes, but eventually she started to notice a trend in the placements. All of the red flowers on the edges and in the middle, the dividing line between that their much smaller inventory of calla lily and black pansy in the shape of a cartoon heart. She blamed Perfuma for getting love on her mind.

 

Adora was moving the darker chocolate cosmos to be the line between the reds and the blacks when she turned around and saw the crowd that had gathered outside of the opposite building. A vigil was being formed in between the shops two doors, candles around a framed charcoal drawing of the shop’s three employees. Adora staggered and pushed a vase to the ground, the sound of it shattering drawing Perfuma’s attention from over by the counter. She approved with a dustpan in hand and it also fell to the floor as she noticed the group of people outside.

 

A good thirty or so people were standing outside, putting down gifts and saying words presumably to the portrait.

 

“What the fuck happened.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry. Needed to push the story along cause otherwise, I'm going to stall out. Next week longer chapter, and hopefully less dramatic.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Never mind, still being dramatic and indirect about things.

Catra was running purely on coffee, a strange feeling for a woman that had avoided it for most of her life. Every moment she was awake was one that was built upon her tank of caffeine, of which she was currently busy filling up. A small café/gas station somewhere on the outer end of Etheria was currently home to the cup of coffee Catra was using to keep herself awake. She looked like she hadn’t slept in the seven days passing between her “disappearance”, at least she was warring a different outfit than before.

 

Some shirt with a hood covered up by a green flannel, the hood in question flung up around her head to cover up her ears and filter her hair. A pair of jeans that most definitely didn’t fit her and where being held on by a belt, her combat boot’s still on and tapping excitedly against the floor of the shop. Her eyes glanced out as far as she could afford to between the hood pulled over as much of her face as possible, and the cup of coffee doing the same for the lower half of her face. Catra realized she needed to steal a pair of sunglasses from wherever they were in the traditional gas station portion of the building.

 

Multicoloured eyes flicked across the three customers enjoying their hangover’s together, then over to the tired old women sitting behind the register. Catra quickly drank up the last of the cup and calmly walked through the separating door, the older woman not noticing she was missing until much too late to charge her with theft. Sunglass display next to the door, subtle hand motion grabbing one of the racks that no one would notice until to lake just like the other dodged bill. Humans and tunnel vision man, one of our many flaws.

 

The pair of sunglasses slipped the green and blue orbs into the unknown, the only recognizable feature of her now the Latinx skin tone she shared with eleven presents of Etheria’s massive population.

  

* * *

  

On the other end of the timeline scale is the moment this whole mess started in full, the moment that put Catra outside of the safety bubble she had been living in for the past week. Scorpia and Entrapta to back her up, on neutral ground which would create a massive series of problems for Rogelio and his squad. She was cast outside of it, through an outsider no less, after her encounter with Bow and then they had been able to act. However, despite this Catra still walks free, if paranoid, a week from this night, Rogelio is destined to fail in some capacity.

 

Instead, there are the unknown fates of Scorpia and Entrapta, both also missing since that night and both starting that adventure just a few minutes after Catra’s departure from the narrative. The old beater Scorpia drove pulled up to the large house Adora and Glimmer owned, contrasting both that building and the driveway full of nice expensive foreign cars. She approached the front door expecting to find a moping Catra and having to go running to her to give her a hug, instead she found herself backpedalling to her car and pulling out a first aid kit.

 

She rushed back to the door frame and the boy sitting within it. She started disinfecting the distinctively familiar man’s hand.

 

“Oh my god, Bow what happened?”

 

“Scorpia? What are- AHH.”

 

“It’s rubbing alcohol don’t be a baby, what happened?”

 

“Punched that door frame to many times.” Bow gestured with his head at a stop in the frame now barren of paint and a layer of wood. “What are you doing out here?”

 

“Looking for my friends Catra and Entrapta, that’s the kitty cat girl and engineer I mentioned last time we worked together.”

 

Bow and Scorpia both use their rare free time to help the local community and such, staff members on a large list of food and supply drives for Etheria’s less fortunate population. Whilst neither would say the other was a friend, they had talked enough to know some things about each other. Scorpia relaxed as she finished brandishing the bleeding hand both had been overreacting to and sat down in the doorway.

 

“Wow it’s a small world, I guess. Seven and a half million people and I know all three of you.”

 

“Yeah, maybe it proves fate and destiny. Anyway, why did you mess up your hand? If you don’t mind answering.”

 

“No, it’s cool, just gonna be a little indirect with it I guess.”

 

“If you wanna.”

 

Bow let out a deep sigh and started to speak. “What do you know about Catra?”

 

“A lot… I know most of the things. Normal stuff, the secret stuff, the self-conscious stuff, the things I assume are true, but she only stops repressing when drunk so the validity is stretched.”

 

“How much do you know about her past?”

 

“Dad’s a refuge from what’s happening in Ecuador, he got placed in Calgary, Washington or Oregon I don’t remember. Met her mom, got her pregnant, got married. Catra’s born, dad gets deported, her mom gets addicted to crack. Her only friend is her cat, her cat dies, becomes friends with the first person she sees after that, best friends for a long time. Start dating that girl, they graduate with high marks, spends a year abroad together, get back and go to a nice college. Make’s it three years, girlfriend breaks up with her and she moves here. A lot of details in their as well that I don’t want to share, and I met her working a job a bit after she moved.”

 

“Do you know why they broke up?”

 

“That was already a lot of personal information Bow, I don’t think I can go that far.”

 

“She told me about her ex and why they broke up.”

 

“Oh shit, she must have been wasted. Just don’t tell anyone, especially Catra because I doubt, she remembers, and it would be a whole thing.”

 

“Seriously? How can you do that?”

 

“Bow it’s not hard to not be a dick to trans people, like fuck her ex.”

 

Bow took a beat. “What…

 

* * *

 

Another rotation around the clock, a flip over to where Catra walks the city avoiding contact. However, we focus on Glimmer this time around, the girl hanging not hanging around her house this Monday like usual. Instead, she spends her time in her mother’s house.

 

“Glimmer sweetie, what’s wrong?”

  
“Nothing.”

 

“Then stop eating through all the candy in my house like you haven’t eaten in weeks.”

 

Glimmer rolled her eyes at her mother and continued to power eat away at the jar of chocolate in her hands. Angella walking around the kitchen, cutting up fruits in an effort to make some for lunch. “Fine. Before Dad, you know, before did you ever think he was cheating on you?”

 

“No. Why do you ask?”

 

“Um, I know it’s probably not right, but I feel like Adora’s cheating on me.”

 

“Ok, why do you think that.”

 

“Two weeks back she came home late without her wedding ring. I heard a much louder car leaving the house than Perfuma’s pulling up and leaving when she came home. Then yesterday she left the house at four in the fucking morning and came back at like six at night and just fucking lied to me about it.”

 

“Yeah, that’s familiar. Probably.”

 

“Seriously? Wait familiar?”

 

“I said your father didn’t have an affair in his life, I regret a lot of things and that is one of them.”

 

“Fuck mom, stop talking, everything is terrible now.”

 

“It was High School Glimmer; everyone was cheating on everyone. But yeah, I would say there’s a chance, but I also think Adora is much better than that and you should trust her more. Go confront her if you don’t, if she really loves you, she won’t lie.”

 

“And what if she is cheating?”

 

“Well that’s up to you to figure out, and if she’s willing to cut off ties with the other person.”

 

“Jesus.” Glimmer continued eating away at the candy jar in her hand.

 

* * *

 

Catra moved across the sidewalk with half a smile resting on her face, eyes darting towards everyone she sees on the street even this far out from gang territory. She doesn’t know where she’s going, doesn’t have a plan except keep walking until she decides to score a meal or a place to sleep. Burner phone in her pocket can contact anyone she needs to; she thinks about calling Scorpia to come to pick her up. She’s fairly confident that she is the one woman that won’t turn her into Hordak first chance she gets.

 

The phone stays in her pocket, someone will probably follow her and try to take both of them out. Her mind drifts to the last encounter with Horde forces, the bandages wrapped around her arm. At least gangrene should have already set in, so she was cleared from that posing a threat. The night is setting soon, Catra needs to find a place to stay for the night. Her eyes glance around the immediate area, inner city towers fitted with a long series of apartment buildings. She runs through the various windows looking for the most likely to be an empty one.

 

Her eyes lock onto the only one without lights and directly on a fire escape, getting up was going to be simple enough.

 

* * *

 

Adora and Perfuma were sitting in the break room, having barely recovered from seeing the funeral outside of the opposed shop. Three people gone from the world, not seen for a week and declared dead by the population.

 

“You wanna get really drunk and high?”

  
“Yeah sure.”

 

The order of speakers, in this case, matters very little. Perfuma comes back from her private room with the best pot and spirits kept within the store.

 

* * *

 

Glimmer stared across the table at her mother, mind wandering as she ate the salad that had been placed in front of her. Was everything just a series of coincidences? Was Adora actually cheating on her? Why the ring, why the lying? Would Adora tell the truth or lie about the affair? How could she even tell the difference?

 

The wedding was in five weeks, would their relationship even live to see that?

 

* * *

 

Bow was relaxing on a couch in Sea Hawk’s apartment, the other man and his roommate hanging around fielding his various concerns and questions. The room was dark, it was late and given they didn’t need light to talk they didn’t wanna spend on the utility bill.

 

“Ok so, have you ever been told one story and then the other size and there are massive differences.”

 

Swift Wind answered. “Every time someone has told me about their breakup, talking to the other person has given a different story.”

 

“So, who do I trust?”

 

“Neither!” Sea Hawk answered this one.

 

“Then what am I supposed to do; I can’t even be around Adora anymore.”

 

“Alright first step, isolate the common elements.” Swift Wind was paying some attention.

 

“They break up. Catra disappears soon after, and I find Adora starving to death in an alleyway.”

 

“And what is different?”

 

“Whether or not Adora broke up with Catra, why they broke up, like ninety present of their history that changes a lot about my understanding.”

 

“Alright, final question. Why does it matter, why do you need to find the truth?”

 

“Because Adora has been lying to me for years and I don’t know how much. I made Catra leave before I could ask her questions.”

 

“Oh, Bow is that why you came to me? Need me to hunt her down?” Sea Hawk was back in.

 

“I mean I guess I could use help findin- “The three of them turned their attention over the open window, a woman hanging out inside of the frame. “Never mind she found us.”

 

“Fuck me. I’ll be going then.”

 

“No, it’s cool, maybe. Stay the night.”

 

Swift Wind joined in. “Bow this isn’t your house you can’t do that.”

 

“I’m going to sleep here so whatever. Catra can we have a conversation?”

 

“I mean if you want to. Like right here and now or…?”

 

“Yeah. Can you two leave?”

 

* * *

 

Glimmer was back inside of her home now; the sun had set a long time ago. It was approaching midnight, Adora still hadn’t come home. Glimmer sat on the couch waiting, exhausted by being awake too long but she was powering through. Waiting on Adora, hoping she returned before Glimmer’s body caved in on her. She slept at three, alone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Gonna be really dramatic and probably sad next time, but also some stuff people will be very excited to see.


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Holy shit I can write I almost forgot about that! Welcome back, double-length chapter this time around. Shout out to those who remember this story enough to read this when it's published without re-reading, cause I couldn't.

Adora and Perfuma woke up groggy and confused, unfamiliarity and splitting headache not acting well together. The younger blond was on her feet first walking around the mico-apartment, of which sported a kitchen was something she difficultly stumbled the six feet over to. Glass of water, Advil bottle on the counter, another glass of water consumed. She searched around the cupboards, largely empty and not enough to make a grease trap. Adora, moving slightly more like a sane human, tapped her co-worker on the shoulder till the other girl woke up.

 

“Perfuma… I hate you so much. This, this really sucks.”

 

“Your pain your problem. Sleep now.”

 

“Nope, no sleep. Where are we?”

 

“What?” Perfuma sat up from her position at an execrated pace and glanced around the micro-apartment. “Uhm... someone’s apartment.”

 

“Who’s?”

 

“I don’t know, but we should leave now.”

 

Perfuma stumbled to her feet in a much more experienced form than Adora had and the two girls started looking for the exit before an unfamiliar voice rang out in the space stopping both girls in their place.

 

“Mrs Colston & Miss Newberry, what pray tell brings you here?”

 

Both girls snapped their heads as quickly as they could to the new voice, the most straining detail of the woman a clay mask covering the entirety of her face.

  

* * *

 

 

Catra was sitting in the open window of the apartment she had found herself in the night before, cigarettes she had spent years getting over now once again dancing across her lips. Her eyes were tracking the movement of every person walking past the alleyway the fire escape watched over, however her brain was focused on her conversation from last night. Evaluating how much of what she said was true, how much of it was new lies and how much was old, would Bow tell other people and if he did who had she given those people different lies or hidden truths they shouldn’t know. Would he say anything to Adora was the greatest question on her head, followed by what to do when that truth came out?

 

 _‘If, if it came out. Positive side Kitty._ ’

 

The catgirl had the slightest smile run across her face as the voice of Scorpia ran through her head and brought her back to feeling like she was with her family once again. As the smile passed from her face, she sped up the cigarette movements, adding the fear of how neither Scorpia nor Entrapta had found a way to track her down. Was she that good at staying low, she wasn’t even cautious during the first day and she had used a safe house? _Why, why, why_.

 

* * *

 

Glimmer slowly sat up from her position laying down, glancing around the room as she got up and her eyes started to focus on objects properly. She was still on the couch in the living room, the throw pillows where they would normally be, blanket hung up on the back of the couch still in place. It took the girl only a few seconds to figure out Adora hadn’t come home last night, not once in the eight years they had known each other had she not gone out of her way to make Glimmer comfortable as she slept.

 

She kept glancing around the room, looking for any sighting of her fiancée to prove what she knew wrong. She kept searching and searching, anything even slightly out of place that would suggest she had even bothered to come home. By the door where all of Glimmer’s shoes but only one instance of the two pairs of boots Adora wore almost exclusively. She slowly meandered towards and into the bedroom expecting, no hoping, for the sights of a completely exhausted Adora asleep in bed that had come in straight from work and gone to sleep.

 

She slid onto the doorframe in the bedroom, staring at the room untouched from last night. Every detail she could place still sitting in place; half the bedding still haphazardly tossed over the half Adora made when she went off to work, clothing piles with nothing added onto them. There was nothing saying Adora had come home, no sign that she still cared about Glimmer. She felt a wave of emotions consume her, overwhelming dread and fear and abandonment, a wave of tears making its way down her face as her mind raced into the worst possibilities. 

 

* * *

 

 

Adora and Perfuma made their way out of the body shop with a quick step and a lot of confused glances traded between them after their interaction with that woman. Out of the shop as quickly as they could and a quick dash over into their own store before they bothered to start vocalizing those thoughts.

 

“Do.” Perfuma was the first one to start talking right as they closed the door but glancing through the glass planes making up the shop front, she decided to move back into the staff room, locking both doors behind her as the two of them moved through the building. “Do you know who that woman was?”

 

“No, no fucking idea!”

 

“Cool, cool, cool. She knows our names. She knew our names, she looked at us and knew who we were.”

 

“Yep….” Adora let her words fade off into the unknown as she stared right through the other girl, unable to properly focus her brain on any of what was happening. Her mind was still laying below a thick layer of pain and fog as last night attempted to remind her of the terrible choices she couldn’t remember. “Fuck I need to go home Glimmer isn’t gonna be happy.”

 

“Yeah alright, take your bike I don’t know where my keys are.”

 

* * *

 

Catra let her empty borrowed box fall down into the ally and tossed her final burned out cigarette down after it, turning her eyes into the apartment that she was considering staying in for a second day. She focused on the room, the two actual owners out of the building she assumed had jobs or something leaving just her and Bow as the only people inside. She focused her attention on him as he played around with his phone, unable from her angle to see what he was doing. She focused her study on his face, a few minutes spent staring at a face occupied by random scatterings of smiles, chortles and even sadness.

 

However, all of those reactions had been spread over a static face and faded incredibly quickly, whilst the change that actually made Catra interested in what was happening was a well and extended look. Three different emotions read off the face in quick succession, worry, concern, panic with at most a minute between change. Bow jumped to his feet and started pacing around the room, either frantically checking his phone or placing his hands behind his head to help steady the sporadic breathing.

 

If she was watching Scorpia do all this, then this would be the point where she would start laughing at the girl given this was how she acted over smaller things than the larger ones where she’d close herself off. Except this was Bow, Catra didn’t know him that well and most people are of the opinion that is in fact the reaction to something bad. Despite her usual reluctance to help people when it wasn’t benefiting her, something about the kid pulled at her heart in a way that made her interested.

 

“Bow what’s wrong? Do you need any help?”

 

“Uhh, yeah, yeah, definitely. I need to go now, in a car going as fast as possible and a lift is twenty minutes away. Please tell me you have a car.” Bow was panicked as he talked, a level of complete desperation just underneath that.

 

“I didn’t exac… actually, you know what sure, I can get a car much faster than that.” Catra climbed down from the window and made her way over to the entryway and pulled out the shoehorn hidden among the various parts of boots cluttering the space, all the while Bow was asking a series of question regarding her chosen framing and what she was doing.

 

Catra headed back over to the open window and started her way down the fire escape, Bow choosing the significantly safer option of going through the building intended even if it was slower. She made her way across the space to the refurbished oldie that had spent all day inside of the alleyway, setting a mental timer for how long she expected it to take for him to rush down the stairs and set her actions to that. One quick motion with the shoehorn and the lock was popped, next up sitting in the driver’s seat and splitting and connecting wires still the car sparked to life.

 

“Minute and three, Jesus I’m rusty.” Catra glanced up as she jammed the wiring cover back into place to the best of her ability and moved over to the passenger seat as Bow came rushing up to the drivers. He quickly looked at her, probably expecting her to get out, but he didn’t have the time to force her out. Bow popped into the driver’s seat and took off into town just above the speed limit. After a few minutes of silence only interrupted by Bow’s nervous tapping on the steering wheel.

 

“So, you wanna tell me what’s up.”

 

“Not especially.”

 

“Personal or you still on the fence with me?”

 

“Kinda and yeah.”

 

“I find talking about something is a good way to deal with personal problems.” That was bullshit in Catra’s book, but it was Scorpia’s line and she was actually competent at getting people to talk to her.

 

Bow glanced to and frown from Catra to the road before continuing the conversation. “I got a text from Glimmer, you remember her right, and I think she’s gonna hurt herself.”

 

“You think she’s gonna…” Catra let that hang in the air, neither a though either of them wanted to enforce nor something she was especially interested in vocalizing.

 

“Probably less than five present chance but I do not wanna take those odds.”

 

“Fuck shoulda jacked something for the autobahn.”

 

“Speaking of, why can you jack a car?”

 

“That a long story.”

 

“I could really use the distraction.”

 

A pregnant pause as Catra stared out the window, and then. “Alright, just to keep you calm. Right after I moved to town…

 

* * *

 

Remove eight years’ worth of hormones, scars, skin grafts, tattoos, piercings, implants, uncut hair growth, muscle development, stress, and just general ageing and you come away with a woman looking very different than the one meddling with the life of her recently separated almost fiancée. Even more disconcerting than that however would be the way she conducted herself in the town she woke up in from her drunken haze. Well and truly timid in comparison to the aggressive gangster to be, eyes not scanning the room every moment for possibilities of threats, although significantly less impulsive which was the element that landed her in her current position.

 

A tattoo parlour tucked into an alleyway in the industrial district, a place that screamed “our artists aren’t licenced” and lived up to that expectation. It had taken her three days to figure out the other amateur tattoo artist wasn’t deserving of a single word in that description, and the number of briefcases disappearing into the head designer’s office meant that this place was used for money laundering or something in that vein outside her knowledge. For another day she was content to just be a prop and collect an easy paycheck as she slowly tried to figure herself out.

 

Then came Friday, she got paid for her first week, and she decided she needed to rob this place. She split the necessary requirements into a group of tasks to be completed. Day one of the weekend was mapping the store and escape roots, the next sneaking into her bosses office and finding the safe he kept personal effects in, then the two following weeks seeing which day the most amount of men came in and left money whilst at work and learning as much about locksmithing as she could.

 

Wednesday night, eleven o’clock, three and a half weeks living in a corrupt little burrow in a major metropolitan city and she was already turning to crime to get by. Her boss had left the office an hour ago, but she had hung around the nearest fire escape for that time just to make sure it was certain. She strolled up to the door of her workplace, fiddling with the straps of her go-bag awaiting its final component. The lock on the door was no problem, and given cops showing up wasn’t conducive to a good money laundering scheme she was safe once she slipped inside.

 

She practically skipped into the boss’s room, throwing the bag to the floor next to the safe and pulling out what she thought was the right-sized key. She had her ear pressed up to the safe box for her guess of an hour, slowly working through the different pins until finally the satisfying sounds of the locking mechanism disengaged. Still pressing her head to the side of the safe she did just the tiniest of jigs before pulling back, opening the safe, and then promptly stop all actions.

 

Even for just the seconds, it had rung out it hung tightly in her ears like it would never go away, the smell of gunpowder going from something she had never smelled to knowing the intimate details of, the feeling, or really lack thereof, of having half your ring-finger disappear from your body.

 

A voice entirely new to her dominated the space as she slowly learned how to breathe again as it spoke. “My my, it appears that we have a thief in our midst. Have a good reason for me to let you live?”

 

Catra could barely breathe, she wasn’t exactly capable of returning conversation at that exact moment.

 

“Five seconds, four seconds, three seconds, two seconds.”

 

“L-locks.”

 

“What was that?”

 

“I got into the safe, that’s gotta count for something.”

 

“Impressive, but you seem to be under the impression I don’t have skilled hackers.” Catra was likely going crazy at this point given she was about to die given she started laughing at that. “What’s so funny.”

 

“It’s just, and your gonna laugh at this too, I don’t know shit about hacking this was all lockpicks.”

 

 And surprisingly Catra wasn’t shot in the back of the head after that.

 

“What?”

 

“Hacking is such a prolific problem all security is focused on that, so I took the easy root, or uh, the smart root and focused on picking the emergency lock.”

 

“Emergency lock?”

 

“Yeah, it’s under this piece of plastic here. In case you forget the code, you never question what the key was for?”

 

The man was silent behind the girl for a long moment. “Creative. Moxie. Competent. I like those traits in an employee, and I have a job that could use your talents. Do you want to die, or do you want to work for me, I don’t much mind either way?”

 

A new voice entered the conversation for the first time. “I mean no disrespect but are you sure it’s wise to recruit someone actively stealing from you Hordak.”

 

“If I only killed those who have wronged me would you still be breathing Shadow Weaver?”

 

“No Hordak, apologies for doubting you.”

 

“Accepted. Young man?”

 

“Yeah sure.” Words followed quickly by a hit to the back of the head and unconsciousness.

  

* * *

 

 

“Anyway, I ended up having to break into cars on a decent basis for my job, so that’s why I know how to do that. I can do newer cars it just requires tech to violate the auto-pilot, in case you were doubting my skills.”

 

“Did you seriously rob from the Hoard and get away with it?”

 

“Well one, I got a job out of it, so I don’t know how to answer that question and two, eight years ago Hoard was fifteen people running a chop-shop and laundering money from that. We wouldn’t even be worthy of note for another two years.”

 

“So, your one of the founding members of Etheria’s largest criminal syndetic?”

 

“Might as well be.”

 

“Wow, can you tell me more that was like three minutes and we still have a bit to go.”

 

Pause. “Yeah, alright sure…”

 

* * *

 

 

Catra groaned as she returned to the land of the living and sprang up in an unfamiliar room, she glanced around taking in information. First realizing she was laying on a couch and then slowly registering the counter and cash register to make a conclusion of being in a shop, with finally her sense of smell working imputes back into her brain to come back with the smell of oil.

 

“Auto shop?”

 

“Yep.”

 

“Ahh fuck!” She glanced around the room looking for the source of the voice, noticing a muscular woman with a set of robotic arms sitting on the armrest of the couch. “Holy shit who are you.”

 

“Scorpia, I’m supposed to be training and familiarizing you with the job.” She hopped to her feet and offered Catra her hand. Catra hesitantly grabbed it and the other girl pulled her to her feet.

 

“Why auto shop?” Catra was already feeling dizzy and being pulled up that fast was not in any way helping her head.

 

“You do know what our job is right?”

 

“No.”

 

“This is the chop-shop, main base of operations for the Hoard.”

 

“Ohh, okay. So, I’m here to…?”

 

“Jacker, for now. We’ll see where you go. Anyway, you ready for the tour?”

 

“Uh yeah sure, what do you do.”

 

Scorpia started walking through the shop to the garage and Catra followed behind her.

 

“So, this is the main work floor, cars come in here and the mechanics disassembled them as fast as possible. We don’t usually work Saturdays so that’s why we’re the only ones here.”

 

Scorpia started walking through the floor again and Catra continued to follow behind her.

 

“I'm in charge of… security through proxy. I worked in Ecuador for a while, picked up skills in CQC that I teach everyone. You included when the time comes. Now this….”

 

* * *

 

Catra let out a cry of pain as her back collided with a wall and she fell onto the mat beneath her, repeated but unsubstantial slaps to the mat as a sign of defeat. She started to talk, but with her face against the mat, all that came out was a series of inconsistent mmhmm's.

 

“You gotta speak up Kitten.”

 

She rotated her head. “What did I say about that?”

 

“Don’t, anyway, you okay over there?”

 

“If I say I broke a bone can we stop.”

 

“If I come at you with a knife will I kill you in a few seconds?”

 

“I assume that was a question and not an affirmative statement.” Catra slowly got back to her feet and started walking back to face the stronger woman. “Why do I have to do this anyway, you taught me basic combat when I joined.”

 

“You were just a carjacker a year ago, you could die, and it wouldn’t affect the operation. Now that you have a commanding position Hordak wants to decrease your chance of death. We’ve been over this the last three sessions.”

 

“And you let me burn down the clock with it every time. Hay could you teach me something that doesn’t involve getting thrown ten feet into a wall ever match?”

 

“You have a small frame and you’re getting weaker by the day; Judo is your best bet in a fight.”

 

“How much longer?”

 

Scorpia glanced over at the clock on the wall. “Three minutes stay on your feet for another round. Use my weight against me, it’s not that hard.”

 

“Your gonna eat those words.”

 

“There’s your fighting spirit.”

 

Scorpia through her first punch halfway through her comment, Catra managed to dodge out to the side. The larger woman spun to face her opponent and lead with a series of testing punches, judging the speed at which the other girl was reacting. Catra might not have been a skilled fighter but she knew enough to do something similar, judging the gap in between punches for an opening to rush her. Then after about eight seconds had past Catra went in grab the other girl in the stomach and tackle her to the ground, resulting in her getting kneed in the face. Catra fell back on the mat.

 

“Is my nose broken?”

 

“Doesn’t look like it.”

 

“I’m gonna ask Doc anyway.”

 

“Oh, is your appointment today?”

 

“Yeah can’t wait to get my replacement finger.” Catra paused for a second and glanced down at her fingers. “Hay is that, like, offensive to you or…”

 

A look of confusion donned over Scorpia’s face and she looked down at her own hands, ten chromatic fingers greeting the veteran. “Oh... Probably for some people but not me, I like the chrome more honestly.”

 

“Interesting, how is your promotion going?”

 

“I’m worried about civilians getting caught in the crossfire, I’m worried if I fail, I’m gonna end up like Huntara, I know I’m not greedy enough to take that stress and I’m worried that I’m not loyal enough and I’m just gonna snap one day and fucking leave.”

 

Scorpia fell down to the mat followed by a long sight of letting that off her chest. “Anyway, I’m in charge of territory acquisition now so that’s what I’m going to do despite my problems. What job are you on now?”

 

“This should be the sixth I think; two tours on transport, half a dozen smash and grabs and espionage missions, the armoured car heist planning/execution and back to carjacking when I’m not doing one of those. As for this one, ask the betting pool cause I sure as hell don’t know.”

 

“You think you’re ever going to get a permanent position?”

 

* * *

 

 

Catra sat up in the bed she was in glancing around the barren room as she had come to make a habit since she had moved in. She haphazardly through her arm at the side table and dragged the burner phone towards herself after making contact. She opened up the device and was greeted by nothing but the time of day, and then closed it and tossed it back onto the table without much care for where it landed.

 

She settled back into her bed, managed to fall asleep at some point and then cycled that series of actions, again and again, every time she woke up. Every time she repeated the cycle the clock would inch along just a little bit more, times asleep over fifteen minutes being incredibly rare. Eventually however as she pulled the phone to her and checked the time it came up after 17:00, meaning that she had to get out of bed.

 

She was slow going in her actions and her movement, making her way out of the empty bedroom, into an empty hallway and down that into an empty kitchen and living room. One bottle of water pulled from its pre-packed crate was used to take most of her pills, and the remaining water she drank to pretend she was keeping dehydration at bay.

 

“Twenty minutes.” Her voice was quiet, almost toneless in pronunciation. She grabbed her tablet and put it under her tongue before falling into one of the dining room chairs as she waited for it to dissolve. A slow rhythm overtook the room as she slowly tapped a random beat on the dining table, medication time was the longest she spent awake and it wasn’t great for her mental state.

 

The beat grew faster and more aggressive as time passed by, one finger slowly evolving into a whole orchestra of knocks, slaps and taps against the table. In a moment she stopped what she was doing and locked her hands behind her head, springing to her feet soon after that and walking around the room to find something to distract her hands with that wasn’t so loud.

 

She sauntered through the main living space glancing around for something in this barren space she had just missed for the past month. A stockpile of food the only thing in the cabinetry and drawers, the tables and shelves all barren of anything with personality, doors all locked, and windows all boarded keeping her trapped inside. She came to rest on the kitchen island and looked at the last supply drop still sitting on her counter.

 

The gangster got to play adult for a few minutes as she worked through the piles of non-perishable good and bottle of water, on-the-fly inventing a sorting system she would in all likelihood forget before she even finished. All but one bag down, this one she had left for last because it was distinctively the only one that lay flat. All the bag had was a notebook and a set of pencils, Catra flipped open the notebook and started looking through it.

 

The book was split into sections, each with different line arrangements. Standard, graphing, sheet music and blank. The first page was the only thing with anything on it besides lines, a simple little message written in Scorpia’s messy handwriting.

 

‘ _Happy two-year gang-iversary (?), sorry you have to spend it trapped in a safe house. We’re getting a lot of heat over this, it’s gonna be a while so I thought you could use something to distract you. Hopefully, you can get some use out of at least one of the sections. XOXO Scorpia’_

Catra popped open the bag of pencils before flipping through the book a few times and finally landed on the blank pages and put her lead to paper.

 

* * *

 

 

The car pulled to a stop in the driveway of the Colston residence, Bow nervously tapping against the steering wheel a few times as he worked up the never to face whatever was going to be inside. Catra had stopped talking as a sense of dread built up in her stomach, she might not exactly know Adora’s wife, but she was well familiar with suicide thoughts and wouldn’t wish that on anyone else.

 

“Fuck it let’s go.”

 

They got out of the car and made their way, hoping they were overreacting and dreading the possibilities.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Remember to keep up with the tags kids, they will tell you a lot about what's going on. Hope everyone enjoyed Catra bonding with Bow and Scorpia cause even largely implied and not scene I sure did.


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So if you're reading this and going, was this written over the course of 3 months sporadically in very small parts that as a result don't work well together, you'd be right. Forward apologies.

With a quick tap of his phone the door unlocked and as the thing popped open, Bow ran right into the house as fast as he could track down Glimmer. Catra, on the other hand, wasn’t exactly sure how to operate in this situation; if she was needed to “help” with Glimmer than she would need to go in behind Bow and either follow him or look for her barely acquaintance herself in a house that was exclusively fuzzy disconnected memory. On the other end of the set was the idea that they were freaking out over nothing, which would mean Glimmer was fine and walking into a practical stranger’s house without their consent was something she was more and happy to not do.

She stood there for a moment running those thoughts through her head, a slight nervous bounce to her movement as she didn’t know where to take her body. And then she heard two screams, probably half a second apart in starting and lasting for almost the same amount of time. Two screams overlapping meant Glimmer was alive and conscious, any scream meant something was wrong. Catra bolted into the room and closed the front door behind her. 

Tracking sounds is one of those skills you pick up from really anything involving going towards or away from the origin of a sound, breaking and entering was definitely on that list especially in the most desperate moments, now a similar situation. She wasn’t exactly used to tracking sounds and going towards them, it was nevertheless a simple task that landed Catra in the same room as her compatriot and… whatever Glimmer was in regard to her vis a vis Adora.

She didn’t have a large amount of time to consider those implications in her head before processing the origin of the two screams from earlier, Glimmer naked in the bath just drunk enough to not think to rectify that fact and luckily too drunk to not be embarrassed. Catra opted for covering her own eyes and quickly bounding back into the living room, letting the two return to whatever their conversation was.

“Okay hang on a second, who and why the fuck is she in my house.”

“That’s Catra, she’s a friend from work-”

“You don’t have a job; I pay literally all of your bills.”

“Volunteering is work.” Glimmer rolled her eyes. “And she’s here ‘cause last time I got a text like that I had to call an ambulance and saving your fucking life is easier with two people.”

The naked girl turned away from Bow, she didn’t have anything for that so best she could think was to ignore it. Bow waited for Glimmer to interact and getting nothing out of her he sighed and continued on the conversation. “Glimmer, what’s wrong?”

“Why does something have to be wrong, I can be sad for a minute can’t I?”

“You text your wife when your sad, you text me when things are wrong.”

“If that fucking bitch isn’t talking to me, I’m not talking to her.” Glimmer threw her arms out like a child throwing a tantrum and Bow took a step back, that was by far the meanest thing he had ever heard her say about Adora. “And another thing, you’ve been dodging my text and calls all fucking week but apparent you’ve been looking at all of them to come for this one! Dicks, all of you!” 

Glimmer was half pushing herself out of her bathtub and half falling into it even more if she was aware of that fact it didn’t show in her continued movements. 

“Sorry I didn’t have time for you this week. Maybe if you’d sent a text about I dunno Adora not talking to you and not if I wanted to go out for dinner I would have responded!”

Glimmer rolled her eyes again as she successfully got, read fell, out of the bathtub and wrapped herself in a towel. In a tone filled with as much dismissiveness as venom she responded. “Yeah, alright, you say that now.”

“I dropped everything and came over here as fast as I could in a stolen car ‘cause I thought you’d be here bleeding to death and I-” Bow couldn’t keep yelling after that, tears forming in his eyes. In one moment, Bow was yelling at his friend, and in the next, he was processing all the worse possibilities like they were a reality once again.

Bow was sitting on the ground a few seconds after that, crying tears of joy or sadness of something Glimmer was too out of it to fully understand. She sat down next to him, wine bottle in hand and mouth, and watched him cry until he couldn’t anymore. Ever vigilant over her friend, never comforting to him, and swirling the cloud of emotions around them to an even worse degree. 

As Bow raised his head back up, stable enough to hold a conversation again, the now towelled girl let out another sigh and continued to conversation on what was important. “Adora had been weird since a bit after the party. It’s like Razz but… like less depressed and more, I dunno it’s different.”

“She’s acting like after Razz died.” The boy stopped for a moment to think before his cheeks flushed. “Oh, yeah, okay you can be mad at me.”

Glimmer turned her head to the side like a confused dog. “What?”

“Razz was her abandonment issues, and I may have done a thing without realizing the wider implications of my actions that caused someone to promptly and unceremoniously exit Adora’s life.”

Glimmer stopped for a good twenty seconds to just stare at her friend with the most confused look she could muster without thinking about it. “So, just so there’s not any confusion. The girl I’ve been dating for six years, I’ve been engaged to for a year, I’m supposed to be marrying in basically a month. Someone I’ve never even met leaves her alone for a week and Adora is sneaking out at odd hours or not even coming home and she doesn’t even talk to me except to lie right to my face.”

Bow didn’t have a good answer to that question, Glimmer had the answer of a madwoman and just proceeded to lie down on the floor and laugh her ass off. There weren’t any good ways to respond to the situation the boy could think of so he just sat there in his best friends’ pain as she tried to wrap her mind around a completely fucked situation. Slowly her voice started to fade and break, tears in her eyes masquerading as those of joy not hiding the sadness underneath. 

When she could no longer laugh Glimmer got up and made her way into her closet to haphazardly put together an outfit. As soon as she was done with that she started walking towards the front door, quickly diverging into the kitchen to grab a new bottle from there. 

“What are you doing?”

“I’m going to my mom’s. Tell Adora to call me when she gives a fuck about her girlfriend leaving her. Also, you’re not off the hook for starting this whole mess and dodging me all week.” 

Bow followed quickly after her. “Can I come with you to your mom's house at least, I’d feel a lot safer since your drunk.”

Glimmer spun around as she opened her front door and then speaking past her friend. “Kitty Cat, that your car over there?” Catra, with just the right level of fear for someone caught between two people fighting, responded quickly enough and started heading to the car. Glimmer flipped Bow off as she left him in her house and proceeded to get into her new acquaintance’s car, plugging her mother’s address into the GPS with a comment under her breath about how old the car was. Catra didn’t waste any time driving away from the house.

“Sorry you had to get in the middle of all this, I can’t imagine how fucking confused you are right now.”

“Not as much as you’d think. Faces are different, motives are, but the emotions are all the same. Plus, I know your wife so that makes things a little less weird.”

“How do you know Adora?”

“Catra Hurst, tattoo artist.”

“Ohh, so you know a lot about me.”

Catra let out a light awkward hum, it was definitely impossible to vocalize that answer without sounding incredibly creepy. 

“Wow… shit, Netossa’s going to be so mad at me.”

“Who and why?”

“Netossa, a family friend and tattoo artist doing mine. We were supposed to start inking yesterday but I did not show up.”

“Ahh, okay.”

“Hay, so if you know a bunch of stuff about me it’s only fair you tell me about yourself.”

Catra bit down on her lip and looked over at the girl currently drinking herself deeper into depression and/or anger. “I am only agreeing to this because this would be incredibly awkward otherwise and your mom is an hour away twenty questions format.”

“Question one, why’d you become a tattoo artist?”

“I liked to draw when I was a kid, kept doing it when I got older. I have enough money saved up to live modestly for the rest of my life so why not do what I love for supplemental income?”

“I mean… I’m a multi-millionaire that’s never worked a day in her life and I’ve never worried about getting a job. Do you think I should get a job? Question two, should I get a job?” 

Catra cut a glance at the other girl, just getting increasingly confused about everything going on around her. “Uh, I mean, do you have like a passion you want to peruse?”

“Not really.” Glimmer was staring up at the ceiling of the car where a skylight might be in a nicer model, seemingly content with looking at the nylon. 

“Hobbies?”

“Hmmm… shit do I have hobbies? I used to spend all day with Adora before she fucked off and got a job. God, I don’t really know what I did before we met.”

“I mean, you could ask your mom for a job. Try and justify the millions of dollars you have. Maybe try some stuff out and see what you like to do that isn’t your fiancée.” Both of them laughed at that, one with a low sense of humour and one to make it seem like she was actually funny. 

“Even if I wanted to do paperwork all day and talk to strangers, which I do not. No offence to you lady, hay have we met before?” Catra shrugged off the first comment and before she could answer the second the other girl was back to talking. “Huh, anyway Angella, that’s my mom. Did you already know that, did she tell you about my mom?”

“Just a tiny bit, Adora hasn’t mentioned much beyond you and Bow. Are you, like aware you’re getting progressively less coherent?”

“I’m a very fun drunk and you can’t have fun if you stay in one place.” She managed to say that like it made as much sense as saying gravity exists.

“Okay, so the wine is spreading through your bloodstream more.”

“If you gotta say it like a robot yeah.”

“I’ve heard infinity more clinical descriptions of drinking.”

“What do you know a robot? Question three do you know a robot?”

“Yeah, I don’t think we’re playing that game anymore.” The catgirl said with a shake of her head, and then before she could continue, she was interrupted.

“What! But I love games.” 

Glimmer looked like her cat had just been run over, and Catra very much looked like she would rather be that roadkill than deal with this girl for the next thirty minutes.

* * *

Okay, Bow we're going back to… Adora.”

Catra stopped dead in the doorway as she looked into the residence she expected Bow to still be at, but he was gone and in his place, the thing of Catra’s dreams and nightmares just hanging on the couch.

“Oh, hay Catra, how are you doing? It’s been a bit.” Adora seemed perfectly normal, like nothing she had done in the past week had even affected her. 

“If you say so, it’s been what… eight days?”

“Yeah just about, where you been. Also, my wedding in five weeks so…” 

“Went on a surprise trip, probably should have told you. The design is finished and, in my shop, once you approve it well start.”

“You should have put something up, people put an effigy outside your shop for the three of you.”

Catra decided she didn’t want to hang out in the doorway anymore and sat down on the couch, with the unconscious choice to set only two cushions away from Adora on her large L shaped couch. 

“That’s what you get for living in the Fright Zone, everyone always thinks you’re dead when they haven’t seen you in a bit. Valid though.”

“Why live in someplace so dangerous? You’re a good artist you could get by well in a better district. Hell, I could get you a job here in Bright Moon.”

“I… I guess the word is inherited my shop, so I’ve never thought to leave. Plus, I grew up in a shifty place so I can get around without any issues.”

“I grew up in a shitty crime-riddled place to, and when I saw a way out, I took it. One of my better decisions.”

“And yet you set up shop in a gang-controlled shopping centre, really trying to live that nice life there Adora. You sure you don’t miss the thrill?”

Adora let out a small chuckle that made the Latina's heart flutter well beyond her comfort level. “Sorry to disappoint but I wasn’t the crime kinda kid, I had a friend that was but the most I usually got into was school fights and underage drinking.”

Catra settles into a conflicting look that felt like a smile but barely looked like one, she was the crime kid, the one pressuring her into drinking and the primary reason she was getting in those fights. Torn somewhere between happy Adora was acknowledging their past and how upset she was with herself given that most of what she’s done to control and ruin her was done in high school. Her heart was making a quick move between fluttering and panicking.

“So where’d you-”

“Hang on I need to, where’s Bow?”

Adora had a lot of practice suppressing her reactions but that would never be enough to stop the unconscious immediate reactions. Just for a moment, Catra got to look into her eyes and see fear and embarrassment before she normalised her face a second later. 

“He left, said he had something to do.”

“Really, without me the woman driving him around? Don’t lie to me your bad at it.”

Adora averted her gaze from her guest. “We, um, kinda got into a fight.”

“And.”

“I may have thrown him out… literally.”

“Well, that’s almost funny.” If Catra and Adora didn’t both look like they were a few bad words from a panic attack she’s be laughing her ass off at that. “Do you wanna talk about it?”

“If I didn’t wanna talk to Bow about it, well…”

“Okay got it, I think I’m going to go if you don’t mind.”

“If you want to.” 

The tint of neediest that Catra had learned to pick up from Scorpia was all over the other woman’s statement. Catra rolled her eyes and let her impulses to run fade away.

“If you're going to be like that I’ll stick around a little longer…

* * *

“So… your trans?”

“Yeah. That’s not what we should be talking about.”

“Do you remember anything cause I sure don’t.”

Catra kept her eyes well and truly away from the other girl. “Not really, pretty sure you started it.”

“It takes two.”

“Yeah but I’m not the one about to get married am I?”

“Shut up.”

“Fine, I’m gonna go back to my shop and I’ll have one of the other two take over my job and we never have to –”

As Catra was making her way out of the bed Adora grabbed onto her arm and without even thinking she whipped her head around to look at the other girl, body flung into attack mode at the unexpected touch. Adora’s body was uncomfortably close to her own, even in her half-drunk state she’d tossed her gaze aside immediately but now that her brain was looking for weak points she couldn’t avoid it. They both had muscles and breasts albeit with the engaged woman being more impressive, but Catra’s brain glossed right over those and focused the scars plastered over the stomach that mirrored the ones that ran over her upper arms and inside her legs she’d taken special care to get covered up with ink.

“D-don’t leave me, please.” Adora felt sick as the words came out of her mouth, she hates that her brain worked like this but losing Glimmer was far too much for her to handless, anyone else would just crush her. “This is my fault, I got us drunk and I seduced you. But I don’t want you to leave my life cause of my mistake, so how about we forget this happen and go back to normal. Please, Catra.”

That was too much for her to think straight, Adora made it so hard to do the right thing. “Okay, let's pretend that this never happened and just hope we can be normal friends.” 

She didn’t see a chance in hell that would happen, but she didn’t much mind that fact; the side of her brain in love with Adora and the side that didn’t want them to ever interact were both happy thinking about either of the possible results of what was to come.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay so three things are coming for this story soon enough but I don't know which things are going to get finished first. The first is an Entrapta one-shot in this continuity I've been working on in the background since Chapter 4, a re-write of this chapter so I'm finally happy with it or a re-write of nearly all of Glimmer's scenes because I think I they're all bad. One of those should be out before the month is over, the dates those we're released will be at the top of Chapter 9 and at the bottom of the most recent chapter as always.

**Author's Note:**

> A reminder of re-writes going on;
> 
> Chapter 1 was re-written on 09/04/2019  
> Chapter 2 was re-written on 11/04/2019  
> Minor continuity corrections scattered about on 30/10/2019  
> Chapter 8 re-write planned, unreleased.  
> Glimmer Scenes in Chapters: ? re-write planned, unreleased.
> 
> Abigale out.


End file.
